Archive for May, 2009

The Home Stretch

While Viper kills himself trying to set a world record in the 400 meters, I’m still doing my best to run a respectable 5k. The last time I ran on a track Viper was in diapers (let me head off any commenter who was about to write, “Oh, you mean this morning?”) and I ran a 9:10 in the military’s mile-and-a-half fitness test. But that’s ancient history. Today, he’d destroy me in interval training. Fortunately for me, we won’t be running 12x400m repeats, finishing with a 200m dash, on Monday.

Yesterday I ran a 25:19 5k, which was gratifying for all of about 15 minutes because I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it two days in a row. And as I warmed up this morning, I was doubly sure, so instead I did a “long slow distance” of 4 miles.

Don’t laugh. It was my longest run since March 29. I averaged 8:49 splits.

Tomorrow is an off-day, so Saturday is my final opportunity to improve (I never run the day before race day). If I can go sub-25 on Saturday, then race day adrenaline ought to boost me far enough to win if Viper has a sub-par day.

That’s an honest assessment, so start placing your bets, people.

The Carnival of Running #30

Welcome to the 30th edition of The Carnival of Running!

With all the pageantry in the Bay to Breakers 12k, it’s nice to see the race itself was a great contest:

Sammy Kitwara set a world record for the distance, saying afterwards, “I feel very well, but very hot.” That prompted one wiseguy to remark, “You know it’s hot when the Kenyan says it’s hot.”

Usain Bolt shows us he’s a pretty fast road racer, too.

The men’s 400-meter hurdle race at the Adidas Track Classic featured a set of misplaced hurdles. Oops. If you missed the meet on ESPN2, Universal Sports has a rundown of the winners and losers.

A guy in New Zealand will attempt to break the record for fastest marathon run on a treadmill. In case you were considering it yourself, it’s 2:21:40.

If you’ve never done a hash run, here’s a good primer of what it entails, which is mostly beer.

Steve Bond says runners rarely exhibit the “crush the opponent at almost any cost mentality.” He’s right. What’s that “almost” doing in there?

The Associated Press discovered three recession-proof products are chocolate, Spam and running shoes. Smells like race day to me!

Cameron Stracher is writing a book about the 1970s running boom, and he’s of the opinion that economic malaise and increased interest in running go hand in hand. But I was more interested in this little story:

“In law school I ran with a world-class, 5,000 meter runner who disclosed he was stoned in the middle of a 13-mile run (apparently a common training technique for him).”

Maybe he was doing… wait for it… speedwork!

On Run Oregon, Joe Dudman discusses the etiquette for passing someone while training. I have soft footfalls, so I use the ninja sprint, sidling up behind them and then shooting past so they foul themselves in shock.

We’ve all seen those poor pacers, running an entire marathon while holding up that little tour guide sign. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before? They’re rabbits. They should have rabbit ears.

Outside magazine thinks long, slow distance makes for long, slow runners.

University of Oregon students make themselves feel better by generating their own electricity while on elliptical machines. Before you get too excited about this idea, it would take 3,000 people a day on 20 machines to generate enough electricity to power one small house. It makes more sense just to go to bed an hour earlier.

copia verborum notices some odd behavior while she runs through Sulphur.

You watch for potholes. You watch for traffic. But Run to Win says to watch out for wet paint, too.

Pam Anderson (this one, not this one) recommends hard candy instead of gels on long runs.

Race congratulations to:

* sound mind, sound body for her 10k PR and tasty free beer.

* The Running Laminator for a monstrous 10k PR but, alas, no tasty free beer.

* maria k at run, rock, and roll for completing her first marathon in Cleveland last Sunday. She even had enough energy to heckle her ex-boyfriend at mile 17. Tremendous!

* Sun Runner who BQ’d in the same race. For her BQ, I have NV.

Thanks to Nitmos at Feet Meet Street for introducing me to the All American Standards of Excellence for master runners. All of those are reachable for me, so I’m clearing a space for my $10 certificate to go right next to my C-130 Hercules One Thousand Hour Club certificate. The old joke was the award for 3,000 hours was a hearing aid.

That’s all for this time, friends. Monday is the Great Funny/Viper Challenge. May the best snail win! Submit your posts to carnival@runningisfunny.com. Now run away!

No Mulligans in Marathons

The Golf Blogger had his dog-walking interrupted by the Cleveland Marathon and had this to say:

Marathon running as a spectator sport can’t be as exciting as the cheering people on the sidewalks make it out to be. It exceeds golf as the most boring spectator sport. At least, the spectator of a golf match can walk along and see the entire match and doesn’t have to run along for 26.2 miles. What is the attraction? There are very few crashes, as in auto racing, the fans of which lust for conflagrations on the track. But the fans were out there, many yelling, generically, as it were, “Go, runners!” What kind of cheer is that? At least, they could be more personal, “Go, Runner Five Thousand Six Hundred and Thirty-Seven, Go!” or “Run your ass off, Steve!” There must be at least one runner named Steve in the group.

I admit that seeing crashes in marathons would be pretty cool (although, like auto racers, runners do “hit the wall.” Ha-ha-ha! I kill myself). But Golf Blogger has got to be kidding me. There are a million reasons why watching marathons is WAY more interesting than watching golf. Here’s just one.

This is a photo of a marathoner:

And this is a photo of a golfer:

I rest my case.

Today’s training update: 5k time = 26:10.

Baghdad by the Bay

Yesterday was the annual Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco, but you don’t want to read about it, you want photos, so go here.

Can Your Shoes Over-Correct?

I’ve been wearing motion control shoes ever since I realized that my 10-year-old cross-trainers weren’t really suitable for distance running. I used to suffer from shin splints and my Asics Gel Foundations took care of them nicely. I’ve also flirted with the Brooks Beast and I have a nice pair of New Balance 1123s waiting to be used.

Though I’m free from shin splints, I’ve suffered from peroneal tendonitis in both ankles intermittently for the past two years. I’m not ready to jump on the Christopher McDougall bandwagon, but I am starting to wonder if my motion control shoes are over-correcting for my overpronation, and perhaps squeezing the tendons and muscles on the outside of my foot.

Yesterday I went out for my second outdoor training run and experienced sharp ankle pain for the first time in weeks. I stopped after about 10 strides, returned home and iced it. Later in the evening, I was wearing my regular “knock-around” sneakers, which are a pair of Brooks Axioms I’ve had for at least a year. They’re relatively lightweight and on the pronation scale they fall between neutral and stability. My ankle felt fine and I decided to run a couple hundred yards as an experiment. No pain.

This morning I decided to experiment further. I wore the Axioms and went for a 5k. My ankle felt fine the whole way. I ran a 27:49 (17:08 over the last two miles). The 81-degree heat was much more of a factor than my legs. I had reasonably quick turnover and no discomfort at all.

The Axioms would never hold up if I were running longer distances, but now I’m wondering if my motion control shoes helped create my new problem when they fixed my old problem. Has anyone else had a similar experience? I’m sure there are plenty of people who move from neutral to stability and from stability to motion control, but has anyone ever had to move in the other direction?

The World’s Slowest Marathon

No matter how awful you felt during the marathon, and how slowly you moved your legs, you still completed it faster than Shizo Kanakuri, an Olympian who began his marathon in 1912, and finished it in 1966.

Don’t Treadmill on Me

They always say to train for the race you will run. So don’t run Pike’s Peak without training at altitude. Don’t run Boston without training for hills. Don’t run the Runaway Bride 5k without training in a wedding gown. And don’t run in Sacramento on Memorial Day without training in the heat.

Viper has been running in the rain, which is what I assume he risks facing in his race. I realized that as much as I had improved, it meant nothing unless I left the comfort of the gym and treadmill for the real world.

To simulate 8:30 a.m. conditions on Memorial Day, I headed out at 10:30 today. To prepare myself for running on pavement instead of a large rubber band, I wore my ankle brace. That, and an ice pack afterwards, will save me a scolding from Joy (maybe).

It pains me to give Viper renewed hope, but road running in 74 degree heat is a lot harder that blasting a 7.6 mph on a treadmill. I started out gingerly, ran a strong middle, and melted at the end for a total 5k time of 27:58.

Yikes.

It was disappointing, but on the positive side at this point Viper can’t tell if I’ll be Sleeveless Windbreaker Guy or Desiccated Superman on race day. I guess we’ll both have to be prepared for anything.