Week Recap (April 30th to May 6th)

Week Summary:

MON - 6.25 miles solo
TUES - 8.25 miles solo (w/strides)
WED - 10 miles with Dowd crew. It was humid and it was faster-than-usual. For some reason, Monica talked me into 2 more mile @ the end. I hate the stupid sun already. Still....fun group for crummy conditions.(+ little bit o' core)
THUR - 7 miles with Monica. (+ core)
FRI - 7 miles with Linz, Jason, Paul, and Anna. Great run, less than great finish. Lost car key. Beyond grateful for Anna and Jason helping me hunt for the key, and for Linz helping AND giving me a ride to my wife's school.
SAT - Home with kids all day. Free Comic Book Day. Standing in line for 3+ hours did not help with rest/hydration.
SUN - 12 miles with a 4 mile tempo-ish push (7:09 average) in middle.Legs felt good....lungs and stomach felt like junk.


On the Run Quote of the Week: Since this is this first installment of this feature, I'm going back a few weeks.

"...and seriously, fat ghosts just get ignored by everyone." (with Nicole Creech)

Runner-up: Most of the stuff Nicole says @ 5:30am that I can't quite repeat here.


General Thoughts from the Week:

Right foot feels great when it is not feeling terrible. PF and heel pain comes and goes. Need to stick with sleep splint. Feel glad to plow through a 6 day week and have legs feeling pretty good, feeling less than glad to have the Sunday run feel like such a fight with the miles so close to goal marathon pace.

Goal of 6 days this week...DONE. Goal of 3 x Core and 2 x strides....was missed, with only 1.5 x core and 1 x strides.

Baby Animal Picture of the Week:

This sums up why I love Zooborns.com. This is what a baby aardvark looks like. Who knew they were f^&@ing adorable? Well, you do now.

Acute Pericarditis and Chronic Perspective

Well, a run that started @ Caribou Coffee with Mike Ham ended up in the emergency room. That is the recap of what happened, and it's also a terrible thing to post on Facebook, if you don't want to send friends/family into a panic.

To recap: I woke up with some tightness in my chest. It felt like sore ribs, something I get all the time from swimming, and since I had recently picked things back up in the pool, I chalked it up to the swimming.

Met Ham @ 5:45 and we were running by 5:50. Chest felt the same at the start, but after 3 miles the deeper breaths led to sharper pains. I stopped at the Montesorri School to try and stretch my chest out. In hindsight, this was pretty ridiculous, you can't stretch your heart (or foam roller....or The Stick....). The 7 miler was turned to 6.2 (the shortest way back), and concluded with a run/walk up DFT. Felt better once I stopped, Mike postulated it could be acid reflux so I went to the store to get some medicine for that....dropped my medicine in the parking lot....got majorly light-headed standing back up. Drive home, try to plead to Andrea that I'm fine....she did the smart thing, and I was in the ER.

FUN TIP: If you are tired of waiting...just say you have chest pain. Seriosuly, they take you right away. I don't care if you have an earache or your femur is snapped in half, the magic words are apparently "I have chest pain.". I think I got in ahead of people who were bleeding.

So, I still thought things weren't a big deal. Even though my resting heartrate was 120, and I had wires stuck to me, I was still holding onto hope that I was going to run 20 miles with Diane the next day. Then I got the news I was spending the night...then I got the news of 2 weeks of nothing. Nothing. Nothing that would raise my heart rate. The hardest effort I engaged in was carrying fast food back to my house, and I collected 10 lbs over those two weeks off as proof. Acute pericarditis was the official diagnosis. My cardiologist (still feels weird to say/write that) had me ease back in, but after 2 weeks stated "my heart looks excellent."

Yes this is old news (Charleston Marathon is older...and I never got around to that...) however I wanted to re-cap this, since I get asked about it often, but more over for the following reason.

2 weeks off and I really missed running. Obviously. However, I kinda turned a slight bit bitter towards some who were still running. Mainly, I was getting testy at reading (paraphrased) Facebook posts that to me, lacked a view of the bigger picture. I would read "just not feeling it on the run today", "these new socks really don't fit right...what a terrible run", and my mind reacted with "AT LEAST YOU CAN RUN!".

The same time my mind chimed with silent commentary, there was something else going on. People were telling me that I was lucky that it wasn't worse....that it wasn't a heart attack. I started out dismissing that notion (or having a better viewpoint) initially, still bummed I couldn't run, but then I recognized the voice. The same voice I had in my head that was demanding perspective from others, was somehow unwilling to grant myself the same viewpoint. I had drawn the line for maintaining perspective directly under my feet, and initially missed what others were saying.

I think I am always going to be caught somewhere in between.....not able to say "at least I have my health" if someone stole my car, but not quite to the level of "this sandwich isn't cut right, everything is terrible." Perspective will likely always be a struggle, but it was certainly a lesson well learned this time, and hopefully it sticks.

Dear Current Marathon PR

Dear Current Marathon PR,

This isn't going to be easy. It's been almost 13 years we've been together. But I think it's time we go our separate ways.

This is hard, I know, 12+ years is a long time to be together.

I remember when we met, Scranton, PA 1998...Steamtown Marathon.I was young, it was only my third marathon, and I'm honestly surprised it lasted this long.

There had to be times you thought we'd be together forever. When I had given up running completely....when I had a 9 year layoff from marathoning....when I struggled just to finish my first few marathons coming back.

Then I guess things started to hit a rough patch. I felt I deserved better. Things were definitely rocky when I came within a few minutes of losing you at Tobacco Road '11, and you had to have seen the signs....more mileage, lower weight, knocking out some quicker times in training.

Having said all that, I hope this isn't a surprise to you.

This is goodbye. Forever.

If it makes you feel any better, just know that this is likely just a rebound relationship, and I'll be with a new marathon PR in the fall.

-Troy

When it becomes....REAL

As the band Real Estate reminded us in my #5 album of 2011; "it's real".

I guess there is always a moment when any racing endeavour "feels real". For me this time, it was walking up the stairs to Dr. Josh Kollmann's office today. Last visit, last chance to work through trouble spots, final tune-up before race day.

I hadn't realized my thoughts, plans, etc about race day had been so much "inside my own head", until he started asking me about the race, and it did feel liberating to just chat on my goals, how training went, and to get final marching instructions for this week. We even talked about dry needling. Something I think sounds like some 1870's medical procedure that is carried out in a dark library by someone with a handlebar moustache, but Josh assures me it is legit and is even going to a seminar in Colorado to back up that claim. Felt beat-up, but amazing, and most importantly...felt ready to go.

The first step in dry needling is to blow the dust of the wooden box.

Last run at any sort of speed was knocked out over lunch....1 hr run with middle segment of 2 min "open it up", 2 min relaxed....for 6 times.

Anyways, that seems to be all for now. Goals for the rest of the week:

1) Be safe - If you are looking for a salsa partner or someone to go ice skating with this week, I've got bad news.

2) Be lazy - You know, as much will allow.

3) Be stretching - Easy runs Tuesday and Thursday just to keep moving, and to warm up for some longer stretching sessions. But not limited to just that....staying stretched throughout the week.

Top Albums of 2011

Heading into final taper week for the marathon, so I figured I'd go ahead and finally finish off my list of my top 40 favorite albums of 2011. I've been counting down the list on Facebook....but stalled @ #7...so recapping starting at #20...here's the list all the way to #1.

#20 Battles - Drop Gloss
#19 Wild Flag - Wild Flag
#18 Austra - Feel It Break
#17 Das Racist - Relax
#16 The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh
#15 The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
#14 Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
#13 Kendrick Lamar - Section 80
#12 Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
#11 Death Cab for Cutie - Codes & Keys
#10 Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys!
#9 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - It's a Corporate World
#8 The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Decks

So here are the top #7. Why top #7? Just felt like I enjoyed these more a slight bit over the others.... top 7 it is.

#7 Cults - Cults

A fun, breezy, summery pop record that seems like it could have come out anytime in the last 50 years and 'worked'.




#6 Adele -21

No need to link to the songs...chances are you own a radio. Just because it is radio friendly, doesn't make it any less amazing. "Someone like You" was the perfect heartwrenching song to pair with the fantastically big and bold "Rolling in the Deep."

#5 Real Estate - Days

SIGH....relaxed, chill, precise....not sure what the right word is, but I've listened to this record front-to-back countless times, and it is magical everytime. That earns you a top #5 spot.

#4 Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Catchy, catchy, catchy. "Just like a shotgun needs an outcome." is easily my favorite lyric of the year on the straightforward sex anthem "Get Some", but it was the softer side with songs like this one....that made me fall in love with these songs. I'll echo what I read in a review, that she is equally comfortable being the agressor or the victim.





#3 Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

The smartest sad-ish record I think I've ever heard. It avoids the 'woe is me' mopiness of a Morrisey record, because it is just so damn self-aware. Every song seems so thought out, so introspective. Lyrically masterful and a vast improvement over White Winter Hymnal. I'm convinced that all of the energy I spent learning to like Fleet Foxes, balanced out my (relative) disappointment in the new Bon Iver album.






#2 Wye Oak - Civilian

Really hard to make this #2, because I loved the hell out of this record. Driving, haunting, insert whatever haughty music review language you want....this just sounds sounds amazing. As much as people (myself included)....have praised bands like The Black Keys for being able to get so much sound out of a duo, Wye Oak has the Jenn Wasner advantage. Her voice carries throughout, and add the drums of Andy Stack....and well, every song just seems so well constructed. Amazing stuff.




#1 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong

Simply my favorite of the year. An 80's throwback in all the right ways, and noisy when it needs to be. I'll leave it at that.

2011 Year in Review....Sorta

I started 2011 with a goal not centered on any pace, time, or distance. I wanted to (for lack of a better term) get my relative shit together. Organize....track my weekly mileage, track my mileage on my shoes, come up with more of a plan.....yeah, didn't really happen.

This partially was due to the fact that I entered and exited 2011 with my aging Garmin. In the middle of the year, I bought a 310 from my friend Diane after borrowing it through Blue Ridge Relay for $75, fell in love with it, and then (based on current intel), lost it in a hotel room in PA over Thanksgiving vacation. Suck. Now my Garmin has lost a pin, so it dangles like a pocketwatch. For my latest tempo run, I held it while it swung back and forth. I should complete the transition to olde-timey train conductor by running in overalls, and spouting off random things like "LAST CALL FOR THE DRY GULCH EXPRESS!!!".

So when other people are posting links to their runs on Garmin Connect and can give you a 2011 total with the click of a button, I have a file folder filled with notes jotted on tablet paper and backs of envelopes.

Running2win.com tells me I ran 1581.88 miles last year. It also has 120 of those miles logged on "unknown" shoes. It also has no record of me running the New River Marathon (on one of my slips of paper...no, the website didn't block this race like I did from my memory). So I would guess that total is at least 200 miles short...maybe? How many miles more did I run this year than last year? Never got around to finishing 2010.

5.2 pounds lighter than the start of the year...with a high of 165, and a low of the last day of the year, 153.

RACES:

I ran 1 8k, 1 half-marathon, 2 full marathons, and was runner #7 on the UCRR team at the Blue Ridge Relay. Signed up to run Medoc Marathon, and was a DNS with pneumonia.

Felt like I finished the year on a high note. After salvaging my Medoc training into a 1:37 finish @ Dowd, I rested a bit, but came back hard with the goal of Charleston or Myrtle Beach. Feel confident 2012 will start out with a marathon PR.

I'm saving 2012 goals/resolutions for post-Charleston....so more on that later.

Ramble on....

Robert Plant once said it's been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time...but he also tried to convince us that D'yer and Mak'er were real words, so I'm not sure how much he can be trusted. But yes, been along time since I've posted....blah, blah, blah....I'll backdate some entries and it will be like I've never left! I've got a few drafts I need to finish off....but hope to be back at this more regularly.

I'm Robert Plant...and I'm cool enough to use the word lonely 5 times in one sentence.

Dangerously close to 2 weeks to go till Charleston...and I'm putting all my stock in my training plan. Definitely some things that I've never done before are raising some internal questions, but at this point, I'm just locked into the plan. I could open my spreadsheet, see a 24 mile tempo run 2 days before the race, and shrug my shoulders, and say, "well, it has worked so far....". I'm in the sort of blind loyalty phase that causes people to join cults or become Cubs fans.


Anyways, here are some of the "sure, why not" new piece of training so far...

• Fast-finish 22 miler (14 @ 8:25 pace, dropped the last 8 all lower than 7:35) 2.5 weeks before the race. Quick recap: This was for sure one of the 'signature' runs in training so far. Really had a terrible day of prep, perfect for holiday laziness (what, a serving size of chili cheese potato chips isn't 1 bag? Well if I had one beer, what's a 4th going to hurt? ), but not running focused at all. Started at the VaBeach convention center, headed out to Seashore State Park and got a few miles on trails and found a water fountain (really couldn't have done logistics worse on this run), back to my car by mile 13 for water, Accel gel, and back to the boardwalk. More than any other run, this sent off the "it is going to hurt" alarm for the marathon, as the last 4 miles were just keeping my cadence and managing my mind and the pain. A few more stops than I wanted on the run, but turned through the last 8 pretty much stop-free....so hopefully this pays off.

• 10 miler @ MP pretty late in the game (this upcoming Tuesday) We shall see. Last decent effort run before race day.




• Track workout 2 weeks before race day....
  
  

So the last bullet is next on the agenda. If I really stopped and thought about it, I'd probably be like..."really? 20 x 400m 2 weeks out?". But so far, so not-injured.....so far, so feeling pretty confident....so far, so seriously, if you want me to join your "Order of the Mystic Comet" Cult....just sneak it on my marathon plan, and I'll see you at the compound.