The last of the Plano Runs?

Plano, don't stop being Plano
The Wave
Soul Skatin'


In the closing weeks before the Hartford Half Marathon, I find myself back in the friendly confines of Plano, Texas, the most suburb-y suburb in all of America.  I'm working with a 90% waving and good morning percentage.  The most obscene example?  The wave AND smile from across the street.

As I always do, I slept in on my first day back home and took to the streets to tackle a ten'er.  The first five flew by as the clouds and breeze helped keep the temperature Rhode Island-esque.  I even took a page out of the Knapp playbook and popped the shirt off because of said confines and lack of ridicule on a Wednesday midday.

Then, the sun shined.


Regardless, I have been trying to take a step back in all facets during this week off as I have micromanaged and lived day to day.  As far as the big picture of running, I need to rein in the lofty expectations and really stay happy for the fact I am still able to run fairly consistently and so far, without injury.  If I never break 20 in a 5k, that's fine so long as I run for the next 40+ years (or more). 

I'd like to take a quote, nay a way of life, from the great 1998 Disney Original classic, Brink!


Brink: We skate for fun. We're soul skaters.

I run for fun.  I run to keep myself in shape.  I run to clear my head or just to think about nothing but the next step and the next and the next and the...

And with that pseudo philosophical mumbo jumbo, my goal for this half is to enjoy it, see some friends I haven't seen in a while, and sit around a 1:45.  (sub 1:40, pleeease sub 1:40)

Return to East Bay

After two 5ks in the wrong direction in terms of finishing time, I took a two day break to re-examine training and have determined a 1:45 for this half is more in the cards for me than a sub 1:40.  What has helped was Knapp dragging me out to East Bay for half of his long run.  Seemingly killing it last year on the path reinvigorated me, along with the picturesque day.

Proof?

CVS 5k race report

CVS 5k
Running celebrities in the house: Molly Huddle and hipster runner from Oregon place 1st and 3rd

Nights before:
2nd shift, engagement dinner, Boston.  Last meal? Hazelnut cannoli from Mike's Pastry before a concert.  Smart Aaron, smart.

Sunday:
From around midnight to the start of the race, we were treated with rain in Providence.  From 11:15 am til the end of the race, we were treated with humidity.  Somewhere in here, one of the twenty emcees asked the crowd what they thought of the race shirts.  Purple?  The lack of reaction was appropriate.
This time, the gang would consist of more than myself as Knapp, Kevin, Sri, Nikki, and Nikki gathered in the mall.

I quickly bibbed myself with pins in the rain as I tossed my CVS bag in Nikki's car.

Nikki and I lined up around the 20 minute logo in a tiny pocket free of people.  People around us were more than likely going to walk but that wouldn't matter today.

The race was pretty flat and all up in my backyard.

As the race started, I hit my watch 2 seconds before the line and headed out around 6:45 pace, feeling pretty good and actually cracked a smile.  This feeling of happiness would quickly stop.

It was another repeat of NK as I fell down to progressive positive splits.  I had around a 7 for mile 2.  I upgraded over the last race in that I only took the 2nd water station.

My gag reflex came at mile 1.75.  Wanted to go for 6:30 after mile 2 but had nothing in the tank, shaking my fists mentally at going out late.

There was one hill, the finishing hill to the state house.  This time I actually found myself racing the end with a couple others.

22:03.

In a funk? Declining? Too much training? Too little training? Late nights?

But enough about me, Knapp goes sub-21, 20:57 and a new PR, congratulations!
KOB, Sri and Nikki with nice outings on less mileage (maybe that's the key?)

Immediate results e-mailed, not bad CVS, not bad.

Swag: CVS athletic bag, trail mix, generic 'Crunch' granola bar, athletic tape, not bad?

I just took off the option on my log to view my 9 month obsession with posting a 30 mile/wk average.  I am definitely considering a two week hiatus post half marathon.

"Long" Run

Sunday night's "long" run of 11 miles post 5k abomination was going to be ho hum save for:
1) a runner on the Blackstone path running, then walking in to a bush.  I kid you not.
2) running by a tall blonde practicing volleyball thinking there's no way Rhode Island is that small but it is; it's Ms. 44.

North Kingstown 5k

Carousel of shifts the past 2 weeks (1st to 2nd to 3rd to 1st to 2nd... to 1st) and G.I. issues hampering me but let us get down to brass tax.

Today was a travesty.  Mentally wasn't there, just the hobby jogger's equivalent of picking up a paycheck.

Woke up after a dream of missing the race and not caring.

Never felt comfortable, going solo to a race which is unheard of since my first 5k in Virginia Beach.


At 0.3 mile in, my mouth dried up and hydration came up as an issue.  Had to take the water stations at mile 1 and 2 (What?!?) I tried to hold on to 6:40 pace, ended up with 6:45 and a bit under 7.

Let go of the pedal at mile 2 (in)voluntarily.

Checked out mentally, and 7:22'ed it in on the last mile.

No dramatic finish at the end as I held on with no one in sight (looked back multiple times) and squinted to see 21:xx approaching the left turn...

21:52.8...

So pissed, ran and lifted when I got back from NK.

CVS 5k in two weeks, see ya there.

Of note, they upgraded to chipped timing, throwing out my notion of starting at the front of the pack.

The last Ashton Mills run?

An end of an era if you will occurred this weekend when Knapp and I tackled an easy 10 miler before moving out of Ashton Mills.  These runs are a part of the training plans toward the Chicago Marathon and Hartford Half Marathon, respectively.  The run was hallmarked by the shirtless Top Gun like run through the bike path one last time as we spoke on many a topic that made me realize we are adults (almost).

Personally, mile repeats are what you do if you like the feeling of throwing up.  I had to not only amp myself up to keep the 7:30 pace during the mile repeats by pretending I was racing, but I had to control my gag reflexes on the last repeat as my body instinctively knew it was the end of this faux race.  

5,000 miles over the past 4.5 years, just broke 1,000 and counting for the year, and finally back to 30.0 miles/wk average after fluctuating between 29.4 and 29.6 miles/wk.  Today was a good day.

Spotted: Born To Run being read in Orange is the New Black aka my new Netflix addiction.

Blessing of the Fleet 2013

3rd shift this weekend so Wednesday's sleep before this race would be monumental.  What did I do?

2 nights before: 4am-2pm sleep...fml.

Night Before:
In a spur of the moment, overnight shift inducing act, I signed up a week before the Blessing of the Fleet 2013 thanks to the gentle nudge of peer pressure at work.  Where am I? Pasta the night before right after second shift, disoriented from my sleeping pattern.  Thankfully a coworker had picked up my race bib and dropped it off at work to save myself a drive all the way to southern Rhode Island.


Left the parking lot at work at 3:30pm in scrubs with my running shorts on underneath, arrive at Gansett High in a downpour around 4:30pm with my Ninja Turtles duffle bag full of my running gear.  Parking spot right in front of the school which would prove to a be a blessing and a curse as we'll find out later.

Donning the Tang Clan shirt (hasn't failed me for PR worthy attempts) and Nike Frees, which seems to be the go to trendy pick.

Mother nature and fortune went hand in hand as the weather cleared up and sat at a decent mid 70s instead of a dreadful 90 like the week before.

The usual pedestrian crawl started the first half mile and continued for the first couple miles but I somehow got down to 8 minute pace.  It was noted that I could not lose to the kid in Beats headphones because we get it, you spent 300 dollars on headphones.  Mission accomplished at mile 2.  My pacer for the first portion turned out to be an older lady who kept whooping it up at random.

My plan was to get half way in to the race and like my last long races, turn it on for the last 5-6 miles.  Conservative was the mind set.

Miles 4-6 were along the main road that was straight and long, rocking my pace gently to sleep.  It was at the beginning of this straight away where I clutched a free bag of ice to cool my neck and lower back.


You know what you got and what you don't got--I wanted to go after mile 4-6, couldn't until a little after 8.  Wiser for knowing that, or wussed out and didn't go all in?

Around mile 7.5, saw my surrogate parents, the Hartnetts cheer me on.

Shots of whiskey and beer before mile 8.  Not for me, just offered.

Somewhere in here, a group of 3 of us all involuntarily shook our arms loose.  That's one way of seeing if someone knows you're right behind them.

Mile 8.3ish til the end, I stopped looking at my watch, making sure I held on to 8 minute pace and just went for it, smiling all the way.  Around 9, passed the last co-worker and booked it to around the tune of 7:15 pace.  Per usual, went too soon in the chute and got passed by the one dude I tried to "race" in the chute.  Shook his hand and congratulated him afterward.

1:17:51. PR.  On the right side of that arbitrary 80 minute cut off.
Wasn't the worst race, wasn't the best.

Meeting up after the race wasn't bad.  What was bad/ a running joke at this race is trying to find our cars post race since we elected to not ride the stink busses and opted to walk to not 1, not 2, but 3 school parking lots in search of our cars.  The walk took longer than the race.

Post race notes:

as noted by our female runner coworker, there were flagrant butt cheeks everywhere.

This race seems to bring the rebel side in me as this has been the site were I debuted my new haircut to the Hartnetts.

the race shirt/gray monstrosity rivals the first pawtucket half

hot dogs.

double rainbow.

no gag for the first time in a race but nauseous now probably from hunger.

an excellent question was posed, what would happen if you ran during the 10 mile walk an hour earlier?

Long treadmill runs and the not too distant future

As I keep chugging along this year aiming for consistency, I found myself at an impasse when I rolled out for a ho hum 5 miler around Providence and not even a mile in felt a burning pain on my left foot and had to call it quits on that run.  Per usual, the biggest fear was that well, that was the last run ever.  I need a back up plan when that actually happens.

But as soon as I got my foot back, I tested it out for 3 hours on a treadmill.  Seems normal right?  And for whatever reason, on long runs my mind is okay with monotony for 3 hours yet the daily 5 mile run takes forever.

nk5k13

Register by this Sunday, get 5 bucks off the NK5k on September 7th.  I'm in and hoping it's not balls hot like last year.  I do hope for clam chowder post-race.

How's my running going? On my long run today, I Heismann-ed a car.