I'm Home

Unfortunately for me my vacation is over an while this is generally a running blog, I thought I'd give a brief summary here. Feel free to skip over this post if you're looking for running material. So, as I mentioned below, I was on a cruise - it was 10 total days and originated out of Bayonne, NJ.

Day 1 - this was registration day - lots of waiting in lines - luggage drop-off, parking, check-in, photo-id process, muster drill, etc. Once on the ship, we quickly found our stateroom - a decent sized room with a couch and a balcony. Then the eating commenced. We also signed up for the wine tasting dinner that was held in the ship's upscale Italian restaurant. Lots of good wine and a great buzz - probably two bottles of wine per person. Most everyone else retired for the evening, but my brother in law and I began a bar crawl around the ship. We finished up in The Chamber - a goth inspired dance club which - if you know me - isn't really how I usually roll, but it was fun anyway. BIL and I then ate some pizza at the all night pizzeria and then hit the casinos and then the outside decks for some ping pong action. After that we stopped by the basketball court for some hoops practice until about 2:30 am. A few slices of pizza after that and we were done for the night. Needless to say, there was no running.

Day 2 - still a bit cold today - probably about 55 degrees, so we were confined to the lounges for the most part. Did a little shopping at the ship's stores, checked out a few of the ship's many bars and acquainted ourselves with the dining room and cafes. Tonight is a formal night and we have a great waitstaff. The show tonight was a typical singing and dancing act. After a few drinks, we head to bed around midnight. I managed to get a nice workout in at the gym today too.

Day 3 - 85 degrees today, but very windy - still at sea. The wind masks the heat from the sun and I forget to apply sunscreen. Three hours after lounging on deck with my head phones I look like a lobster but only one one side of my face... I had another good workout - including a four mile run. Tonight's entertainment was a new age styled piano player - kind of boring, but I make it through. I make my first trip to the Johnny Rockets tonight. Up again until 12-1 am.

Day 4 - up early to see us docking in Haiti. Actually, we're at Labadee - Royal Carribean's private stop which happens to be in Haiti. While there I ride the world's largest zip line that travels over water. It's 500 feet high, starts at a mountain situated on a peninsula on the shore and descends one-half mile over the ocean to another peninsula below while travelling at speeds of 30-40 mph. Scary initially, but lots of fun and the ride lasts for about a minute overall. Went to a beach after this and had a fruity drink or two. Followed that up with a feast of jerked chicken, beans and rice. Dinner was typical and the entertainment was a juggling comedian. BIL fell asleep at 8:15 tonight after eating four entrees and I mock him the next day. I also managed a late night run.

Day 5 - today was a stop in Samana, Dominican Republic. We tendered into the island and explored the town, but there wasn't much to see except for a huge number of local artisans who have set out their works along a sidewalk leading along the water spanning the entirety of the distance into town. visited a church here that had been assembled in England, disassembled and brought here and then reassembled. We actually got to experience a mass and the singing was beautiful. After about 10 minutes, we make a donation to the parish and head to our excursion. That excursion was a four hour guided ATV tour into the Dominican countryside, so we got to see the real Dominican Republic. Two observations here - actually three or four. First, the countryside was stunning - we drove up and down many beautiful hills and valleys, along the beach, crossed a few rivers, and drove down several wooded trails including one that stopped at a waterfall and also drove through several villages. Second, the people here are amazingly friendly - they'd all run to the roadside as we drove by and would either wave or give us a high five. Third, there is lot of development going on - including the installation of an aquifer for several of the towns that we drove through. Last - the poverty here is astounding - as I mentioned above, there was no running water once you left the town. And many of the homes here lack windows and roofs. A real eye-opener. I fell asleep tonight at 7:45 pm and I don't wake up until 8:30 am the next day. My BIL, as expected, is all over this... Needless to say, there was no running today.

Day 6 - we were in St. Thomas today. We walked from the pier into Charlotte Amalie and take the ferry over to Cruz Bay, St. John. From there we head to Trunk Bay for some snorkeling. We are informed that the surf is too rough for snorkeling, so there is no snorkeling today BUT, there is no entry fee charged because of this. Swimming is also discouraged, but permitted if we choose. Well, we're here so we opt to swim. And the U.S. Park Service is right, it's rough out there, but fun too. Rum punch helps me to forget to apply sunscreen again. Ouch!! After 3-4 hours, we head back to St. Thomas via Red Hook stopping for another drink prior to cabbing it back into town. We eat dinner at a favorite restaurant in Charlotte Amalie and then go shopping. Amy gets diamond earrings and a matching ring. I get nada. More Johnny Rockets tonight and then to bed around 1 am. No running today either.

Day 7 - San Juan, Puerto Rico. One of the ship's propellers has been damaged and this cuts our stay here short. We are here from 8:30 to 11 am only. We wander around Old San Juan. It's nice - some of the city dates back to the 15th or 16th century - lots of narrow, winding cobblestone streets. I get a nice watch.




The rest of the day is spent lounging on the deck and listening to music, eating and another trip to the gym.

Day 8 - we're at sea today. it's a lot like day three except that I manage not to burn myself. A little drinking, lots of sun and some ping pong and shuffleboard round out the day. Another formal night for dinner - I get both the lobster and a nice Thai chicken breast. Oh, and Johnny Rockets to close out the night. Spent the evening drinking with BIL. Three more miles today too.

Day 9 - it's cold again today - another day spent in the lounges - mostly eating. I played bingo twice today. Fill the card for $8k and $10k respectively. One last workout today too along with a lot of packing up my things.

Day 10 - after one more big breakfast - I had to go home. That's about all I have. Overall, I only gained three pounds. Not bad since I usually gain 8-10 pounds over the course of a seven day cruise. No running today with all of the travelling.

Let's see - I ran today too. Three miles. It finally feels like I'm getting back to liking running again.

Tomorrow's post will return to your normal programming. Promise.

Greetings From The Caribbean!!

I've been on vacation for the last several days, so I've had no time to post, but I've discovered that the ship I'm on has wifi.

Fortunately, I've been able to keep the running up - in fact I've had runs on the Atlantic Ocean as well as the Sargasso and Caribbean Seas so far.

Today we were in Haiti (and 92 degrees) and I rode the longest zip line in the world. More on that later when I have a few moments to post. Tomorrow is the Dominican Republic, then St. Thomas/st. John and then San Juan.

See you all when I get back. I'll try to check in again while I'm here.

I’m Streaking

So says Lora in her comment below. And she’s right – in two ways. First, I ran two miles last night – not incredibly far, but I did run them around my “old” pace last night – which is 8:00/mile.

It was also my fifth consecutive day running (which will be six after I go to the gym this afternoon). This got me to thinking about running streaks and the concept of whether to run every day or not.

As for me, I’m at my best when I run every day. Out of curiosity, I went back and checked my running logs to determine my longest running streaks. The longest was 135 consecutive days during which I ran 157 times. My second longest streak was 98 days –with only one run on each day.

I’ve been told many times that rest days are essential for the body to recuperate – and I acknowledge that days off would most likely help this aging body recover more completely. I just can’t do it though – and here’s why. I’m a slacker by nature and I need the discipline imposed by running every day. I’ve tried training plans where I run 5 or 6 days per week and I always use the days off as excuses not to run. So, a typical 6 runs per week - 50 mile week would look something this:

M: 5 miles
T: off
W: off
R: 7 miles
F: 12 miles
Sa: 10 miles (intervals)
Su: 15 miles

So, I’d start off with the shortest run of the week, then take the next two days off – yes not one, but two - justifying that by saying “Well, if I can take one day off…”, then I’m left filling in most of my mileage at the end of the week – including putting the speed work too close to the long run. It’s inevitable, I do it every time.

However, if I force myself to run every day, then I’m much more likely to do the workouts exactly as I’ve written them out for the simple reason that there’s less wiggle room. As for easy days, I’ve always considered any distance of six miles and under done at an easy pace to be an easy day.

So, what do you think? What’s your longest running streak? Any thoughts on running every day? Leave a comment and let me know.

Wow

Here's a scathing indictment of the state of the US track and field program that was released by the USATF's Project 30 team today. It's pretty long and I haven't had time to read it all, but the list of organizational issues as well as the pettiness of the athletes is rather shocking. Hopefully Team USA can pull it together by 2012. I'll read a little more tonight when I have some time and maybe add a few more thoughts.

As for my running, I did a few miles on the treadmill this afternoon. It felt a little harder than my efforts outside but I think that was because the gym at the office was (actually, it always is) really warm today.

I'm In Bizarro World

Why is that, you ask? Last night I completed my long run for the week - about 3.5 miles. The interesting thing is that this "long" run is shorter than the shortest run in my last complete marathon training cycle.

I know, I know - I'm only on day three of my return to running, but making light of my situation makes it a bit easier, I think.

Also on the positive news front - my weight has dipped below 195, so that will hopefully make the running a bit easier. Now that I'm thinking about it, to this point my body has been holding up a little better than I thought it might. Aches and pains to be sure but that's it.

The next big challenge for me (with respect to my running and my weight) is the fact that I'm leaving for vacation on Friday. I'll be on a cruise ship, so I'll have access to a track and a gym - which I used every day on my last cruise - but it's definitely a challenge to get up and work out every morning while I'm on vacation. Then there's the unlimited access to food...

In other news, I've been getting caught up on all of my running magazines and websites lately, so I should hopefully have something on than my incessant whining on here pretty soon.

Today is likely to be a treadmill run.

Twice As Nice

Yes, I ran again yesterday. Instead of doing the longer or the shorter run I decided to compromise and do two miles again but reversing yesterday's course. I ran around 10pm under a full (almost) moon and that, combined with all the snow we have, made it seem like I was running in the middle of the afternoon. Pretty cool that I was able to see my shadow for most of the run.

Not surprisingly, it hurt as much as it did yesterday BUT my time was over a minute faster than yesterday. I'd attribute that to the improved temperatures (42 vs. 18 degrees) as well as my being more mentally prepared for this run.

Another thing that I've noticed is that my form just crazy right now - it feels like I'm all elbows and knees and nothing is in sync. Fortunately, that awkwardness should fade with time.

Last thing - for the entirety of the run I was in my own little corner of hell, because this kept running through my head - I have no idea why. Thankfully all of my runs are short these days. This happens to me way too often. I should probably just start wearing earphones...

Today it's supposed to be over 50 degrees here, so maybe I'll get an afternoon run in.

What's The Old Cliche?

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...

While I hope my journey is much longer than a thousand miles I did, indeed, I did get my first run in last night. It wasn't anything too special - just a couple of miles around my neighborhood. I few observations:

The Positive

1. That I ran at all.
2. I'm worried about the recurrence three specific injuries right now: my left hamstring, my right hip and plantar faciitis in both feet. Thankfully, none of those were present last night.

The Negative

1. My tights fit kinda funny right now...
2. I am in much worse shape than I thought (read: I'm pretty sore today). I may need to scale back my training at first.
3. While I am generally a cold weather runner, I have certainly lost my resilience to the elements at this point - I was absolutely freezing last night.
4. At my current weight, my knees and ankles are going to be giving me some problems.

Speaking of my weight - the highest that I've been recently was 202 pounds. Last night I was at 196. A small improvement, but at least I'm moving in the right direction.

I'm not sure what I'm going to run today. I was planning on doing 3-3.5 miles when I planned out my schedule, but I may end up around 1.5 miles instead.

A Question

Does anyone know of a good, running-specific strength training program? I've looked all over the internet and can't seem to find anything. I have several good generic programs, but I was hoping to tailor my plan a bit. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

My Tragic Tale, Or What Have I Been Up To Lately?

This is a bit like reliving a nightmare. I really haven't wanted to talk about any of this for several months, but I can't push it off any longer, so here we go...

Where does the time go? I was reading through the old posts here and I didn’t see anything that explained my running situation – even last year, so I’ll start from the beginning.

I hurt my hip in September of 2007 by falling off of a stepladder. It wasn’t a terribly long fall; only a few feet. The problem was that I landed directly on top of the ladder and severely bruised my right hip (at least that’s what I think I did). I should have gone to the doctor, but I didn’t. I should have taken some time off from running to recuperate, but I didn’t do that either. Instead, I tried to jump right back into training. The problem was that I had zero power in my right hip as well as a compromised range of motion for several months thereafter. Even so, I continued to run. The lack of strength in my right hip led to some over-compensation with respect my left leg and I eventually strained my left hamstring – right up at the very top of the hamstring. Those, I’m told, take a long time to heal. Unfortunately for me, I’m not very patient.

I decided to run the Philadelphia marathon, but instead of racing it, I paced a couple of friends. No problem, I’m being good by not pushing it, right? Well, I built up the mileage to about 200 miles per month in January and February ’08 – that when I started this blog – to keep track of my running. Well, my hamstring continued to act up and I kept injuring it – over and over and over. So, if you’ve read this blog at all, you’ll know that I was planning to run both the New Bedford Half-Marathon as well as Boston last year – neither of those happened as I was nursing my hamstring injury. I was able, however, to obtain a medical deferral for Boston ’08.

It was in early March that my training started to go to hell. I couldn’t get in the miles due to the injury and soon thereafter my motivation started to wane as well. It remained this way for much of the summer – I’d run a bit and then re-injure the hamstring (you’d think that I’d try to strengthen it by now, wouldn’t you?). At this point I decided that I was in pretty pathetic shape and that I needed to rebuild my base, so I began a low heart rate training regiment. This actually worked pretty well, but it was extremely aggravating. I started off with a pace that was just under 10 minutes per mile, but soon dropped to the low nines, then the high eights. As fall rolled around, I could occasionally run a mile in under eight minutes while maintaining my target heart rate.

By October, I managed to build up my monthly mileage to just under 200 per month again and decided that it’d be ok to run the Baystate Marathon in Lowell, Massachusetts. I had done no speed work and no real long runs worth mentioning, so I can’t explain why I thought that this was a good idea. The race started off well. I wanted to treat it as an exceptionally long training run and was cruising through 20 miles at about a 3:35 pace. That’s when disaster struck. Just past the 20 mile marker, I felt a shooting pain going through my left knee. I stopped momentarily to see how serious the injury was. After a minute or two I ultimately concluded that my knee was nothing to worry about, but it was a cold day and my muscles quickly stiffened up. The bottom line was that I could not get my body back in motion after stopping except for a painfully slow trot over the last .2 miles. My 3:35 turned into a 4:48 with the last 6 miles all walked. It also turned out that I had injured myself, yet again - the hamstring as well as a nice case of plantar fasciitis. I had to shut my running down entirely – this time until I was completely healed. That took almost two months. Unfortunately for my training apathy, frustration and a touch of laziness had set in and I failed to run for all of December and most of January as well.

If you look back, you’ll see that my weight as of 1/1/08 was 184.5. That was 20 pounds heavier than I was earlier in the year. Well, this year I topped out at 202. So, I have a long way to go to reclaim my old running form. Needless to say, I’m not going to be able to run Boston ’09 either. That’s ok with me though, I’d rather re-qualify than run it in my current condition.

So, what am I up to now? Well, I’m going to run for the first time is a long time tonight. I’m hoping to be able to get through 2-3 miles without dying. I’ll probably continue with my low heart rate training for now and see how quickly I can get back into shape. I’m also going to try to get back down to that elusive 150 pound mark that I mentioned last year through a combination of running, strength training and diet. I’ve also signed up for another marathon – the Lake Placid Marathon - it’s going to be run on June 14th and my goal there will simply be to finish. Then, hopefully, I’ll be able to take another shot at a Boston Qualifier in November at the Outer Banks Marathon.

Whew! That’s a lot for one post. Anyway, at least now his blog will have a theme to it – triumph over adversity. Hopefully I’ve got it in me. Only time will tell.