massage man running

there is a big picture

2006-12-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

hi blogmates,

i ran for 57 minutes at an easy pace on the denton rail trail w dianne today. it was about 70 degrees and low humidity. reading about the winter solstice, yule logs and other dark, cold winter traditions makes me think christmas time in texas ain't so bad.

while i was running along one of the random thoughts i remebered was: nothing is ever going to be as good as it used to be. this is both the good news and bad news.

something else i noticed while running along was how disappointed in myself i am that i have been feeling so disappointed in my performance at the white rock half. i just didn't realize how committed i was to running it in two hours or how the the mistakes i made during the race would affect me in such a negative way. it's corny but true: i have learned a more by processing the mistakes and the accompanying feelings from this race than from the successes of other races. one change will be to run for time and intensity, as measured by heart rate and amount of time per workout, not distance and pace. i'm also giving my garmin to dianne and using my reliable timex ironman watch and my hr monitor. there is more i could say about the other changes, but they are not as concrete as giving away garmin so i'll talk about them another time.

try to remember that when all the crazy relatives and family gather for the holidays, you're one of them.

relax. take a breath. there is a big picture.

happy holidays.

have fun running.

evening run/random thoughts

2006-12-14T17:56:00.000-08:00

it's only 5:45 and just now dark. if i don't run now i'll miss it and i can't run in the morning.

i still feel full from lunch. wtf?

man, there's a lot of traffic. where are all these people going who don't notice me running here?

hope there's no bumps in the sidewalk because the on-coming head lights are shinning in my eyes and i can't see s#@t.

i hope there aren't any more branches hanging in the way. @%#$&*! headlights.

phew, does that car needs a valve job.

oh good, that guy in the truck does see me.

it'll be so nice when i get to think about this run later and be glad i did it. that'll feel good.

i wonder if i'm still tired from the race? i don't feel tired...i wish i had a magic carpet. magic shoes, that's it! i won the lottery and all these cars are gone!

it's peaceful.

and dinner's ready.

but i'm still full.

more on the half

2006-12-11T05:32:00.000-08:00

the offical unoffical results are in. according to the white rock website my finsh time was 2:04:07 which is what garmin said. the splits were goofy:14:21, 9:41, 12:28, 9:40, 9:24, 9:32, 9:10, 8:56, 9:04, 8:54, 8:18, 3:34, 10:31, last 291.2ft=28sec. i think garmin did some re calculating. the website said the first 6 miles were a gradual uphill and that we wouldn't even notice because of the excitement of the start. well, that wasn't exactly accurate but, it was gradual sometimes. there were 4570 finishers in the white rock half. of those i was 1880 overall and 93 in my age group. it seemed far more crowded than the half i ran in november and having to dodge people was frustrating sometimes. there were other things about this race that were different. garmin had a bad day, what with the cloud cover and the tall buildings down town.

the start did not have pace corrals. about 5 minutes before the start people holding signs with the pace times on them were seen standing in a group near the starting line, then trying to move through the throng to postion themselves at the appropriate spot. there were plenty of water stops and porta-cans although i didn't need to stop for either one.

the course was okay and took us through many scenic neighborhoods and parts of dallas. it was especially fun to run through down town. all points of the race were well attended by enthusiastic spectators, many of whom had cookers in the their front yards that made it a little smokey. the start was in a chute created by tall building flanking both sides of the street. on a patio to the right and above where i was waiting for the gun, a live broadcast from the race was taking place and frank shorter ("hey look, thats frank shorter!") was the expert commentator. i don't know anything else about the broadcast but assume all the local news shows had segments of the race all day.

i think having bands playing on the course is funny. it was quirky but charming and distracting to run past a band dressed in overcoats mostly playing classic rock to a bunch of runners who will hear 20 seconds of music while they run past. meanwhile the band is freezing the their butts off at an hour of sunday morning when musicans would be normally not be playing, let alone be awake. it's also fun to hear them playing from a quarter mile away and wonder what their dress and attitude will be like this time of the morning. i wonder what they paid those guys?

all in all, i think the race was over hyped, over priced and over sold. i'm pleased that although i didn't come out fast enough and get a 2 hour race, i ran strong at the end. also and more importantly, it's always worth it to run with my friends and see everybody at the race and to be doing it at all.

white rock brief

2006-12-10T19:21:00.000-08:00

finsh time 2:04:07. not to bad a day overall (a PR). i came out to slow but ran a strong second half. perfect weather for running with the temp at the 9:00am start around 50ish and overcast. it wasn't a good day for the garmin with overcast skies and the tall building downtown. i'll try to figure out something and post some numbers. also, i'm not used to running under such crowded conditions. there were over 10,000 runners. it was hard to trust the garmin when it told me my first mile was over 14 min.

got food?

2006-12-08T18:14:00.000-08:00

i've been working on runners who are getting ready to run the white rock marathon during the last 2 weeks and i'm wondering about something....

what, you ask, am i wondering about?

i wonder how many of the runners i've seen are having taper/psycological related issues; ghost or phantom pains that feel like a real injury. have any of you experienced this? perhaps they are on the verge of an injury and the massage work increasing circulation and decreasing adhesions prevents the injury from happening or at least prolongs its arrival. isn't it true that all one's training is done 3 weeks out from the race and then a runner starts to taper? i wonder why these issues or pains or tweaks or whatever you want to call them don't show up during monster month when mileage and intensity are both high?

i notice this happening with me a little bit too, but not pain or injury stuff very much. for me it's appetite. it feels like i could eat my weight in nearly anything. thank god for running.

good luck to all who are racing this weekend, especially those at white rock. my bib number is 9635 if anyone wants to check up.

i'm getting kinda hungry.

happy running!

Ready?

2006-12-03T17:33:00.000-08:00

34 degrees with the wind from the north at around 10 miles per hour if i was to guess. when i started my run this morning i was running south and after i warmed up i was having a great run...until i had to turn around into the wind, and uphill, and run back back to the car. we've all been there. it just makes that hot shower after the run so much better. it was a beautiful dawn this morning too.

Next sundy is the white rock half marathon. training-wise, i won't be any more ready than i am right now to run it in 2 hours. now it's time to see myself, and feel myself, doing it.

Overdressed

2006-12-01T05:15:00.000-08:00

dianne and i went to the Y last night after i got home and ran together on the treadmills. it was so very pleasant. i was tempted to bail on my run yesterday, but her wanting to go run last night was perfect and we had a nice talk too.

unlike yesterday morning which was cold, windy and wet, this morning it was 24 degrees outside the back door with no wind when i headed out for a 45 minute easy run. i was over dressed with sweats over tights and a long sleeved base layer, a wind top and a big, thick hooded sweatshirt, gloves, neck gater (i don't know how to spell gaiter, or is it gater?) and watch cap. my face didn't even feel numb untill i was almost home. it was a nice run.

happy running!

no run today

2006-11-30T04:58:00.000-08:00

okay. call me a whimp. i was going to run today but it was 32 degrees at the back door with a strong north wind and rain. didn't make to treadmill land (the Y) either. i don't know how you northwesters and norskies do it.

Last Long Run

2006-11-27T17:51:00.000-08:00

dianne and i had a really nice, and different, thanksgiving. all the kids had plans, either out of town or at in-laws, so it looked like we would be alone in the house for thanksgiving. at the last minute my sister came to visit last week. on thanksgiving day none of us felt like cooking a big meal so dianne and barbara made sweet potatoe pie. then we went out to a nice little restaurant for dinner on thanksgiving. we had a great time and the only down side was not having left-overs, like a turkey sandwich, to go with the pie about three hours later.

sunday's long run was productive and is the last true long run before the white rock half marathon on the 10th of december. the run was 75 minutes of running at an easy pace, then 45 minutes at race pace. tomorrow is an easy hour with 6x15 second pick-ups.

happy running everyone!

don't panic. it's a mental thing

2006-11-22T06:33:00.000-08:00

yesterday's run was supposed to be a 60 minute run (ultimately it was) with 6x4:00 minute intervals of hard running at below race pace (8:00-8:30) with a 2:00 minute recovery at above a shuffle, like lsd pace. i was ready to try it. after all, i had just pr'd again in an 8 mile race over the week-end. it was harder than i thought.

the most difficult thing was to stay on the edge of the really uncomfortable, i just have to walk now before i blow up panic feeling, without really letting up on the intensity. in the past, if i just back off a wee bit when i feel like that it makes me feel less urgent and i've noticed that my pace doesn't slow down much. it just gives me a chance to regroup. this time i forgot to remember to be ready to feel this. when i did, i wasn't ready. with any luck, i'll remember next time.

and...

it's also interesting to notice how my form starts to break down during these moments of panic.

well, anyway...

there are some great deals on travel to london right now. i wonder if bw has a rain coat.

happy running!

Dash Update

2006-11-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

according to the offical race results, i finshed 6th in my age group (out of 8) at 1:13:56, which comes out to 9:05 per mile. will wonders never cease.

dinner's ready!

run happy!

Dorothy's Dash Report

2006-11-18T15:29:00.000-08:00

today our gang met at flower mound high school to run dorothy's dash metric half (8.1mi) and five k. sorry i don't have a pic but i didn't have a place to put my camera (no wise cracks) but karrie, cindylouwho, our friend deena and my bw all lined up at 8:30 morning. it was a mostly perfect morning for a run with a little bit of north wind, temps in the high 40's and clear as a bell. the majority of the coarse was on simmons road down to the lake and back. it's hilly; downhill on the way out, uphill on the way back (especially mile 5&6ish) with the last mile and a half level to the finish. this was a small race, maybe 800 people for the 5k and the 8 miler. there were plenty of water stops, but no porta-pots on the route. that kinda sounds like having a bar with out bathrooms....

perhaps the best news of the day was that dianne pr'd again. she finshed 5k in 34:24. as we were getting ready for work later i heard her complaining and asked what the matter was. "these pants don't fit! they're to big! yes friends, it was a good day for dainne.

my average pace was 9:11. here are my splits: 9:49, 9:16, 9:10, 9:02, 9:19, 9:17, 9:00, 8:36, last .17mi 1:28. i had a nice day, too.

happy running!

Tuesday Post, boring title

2006-11-14T06:02:00.000-08:00

today's run: 60 mins with 6x3min hard intervals with moderate paced recovery. i got home as dianne, mbw, was heading out to run. today dianne ran her fastest 3 mile run to date.

i think its weird/quirky to think about breathing/cadence patterns when i run. oh well, if the shoe fits i suppose i'll run in it. in the end and at the end i'm just gasping, or as try says,"gulping air like a trout." this addiction to running is a funny thing.

Happy Running!

its time to start

2006-11-12T14:48:00.000-08:00

today's title is the title of a blue man group tune. it's also what my schedule says.
this post is pretty meager as this week i haven't run much. just two easy4 milers. i was listening to coach gail and recovering from the half last sunday. however, i have been lifting and gone to yoga a couple of times.

today's run marked an end of the recovery period with a 2hr 15min run with the last 30 min at 9min mile pace (right), or as close to it as i could get. once i picked it up, i ran for 21 min as fast as i could go, then went to a cool down jog. it was hard but during that 21min i found a groove where my breathing and footsteps where 1/1. what i mean is one step per inhale, one step per exhale. its was a hard place to stay in. one moment it would be ok, then it was, "oh s#&t, this is intense!". it reminded me of richard pryor's imitation of the first man on the sun.

my next goal race is the white rock half marathon in december, on the 9th i think.

my friend jim just starting running and is training for a 5 mile run on january first. go by and say hi.

happy running!

More on the Half; the rest of the story

2006-11-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

one of the things about running that i enjoy so much is people watching and a race is a great place for that. every shape and size human is there, in running clothes, ready to go the distance. some of those people are far from graceful and move so inefficiently it's reminds me of elaine (from seinfeld) dancing.

everyone is so unique. i notice the bottoms of peoples shoes and the designs and patterns on the soles as they run. also, i notice the way they move their feet when they run in front of me. does one foot swing out while the other one moves fluidly toe to heel? etc, etc, etc. yea, it's dorky.

in my last post i forgot to mention that i pr'd. the last half i ran in march was a rich learning experience (i bonked at mile 6) in which i ran a 2:28. i'm not being sarcastic about the rich learning experience either. here are some of the those things i've learned so far.

i seem to do better with a plan.

barring any unforseen things going wrong, i will run the race i trained for. in other words, i "play like i practice".

working with a coach was very helpful. i didn't have problems doing the work that needs to done and i was in reasonable shape when i started working with her. i needed a little help with focusing my effort staying with the plan.

i must be patient. i have a long range goal of running for as many years as i can and hopefully improving for as many of those years as possible. i would also like to be faster. that won't happen without measured, steady work over time.

tappering and recovering are weird. not running....very strange.

these things may seem obvious. logically i knew them too, but i have an experience of them now i didn't have before.

this is as close to a race report as i get. one more thing however. the sport of running, all the running buddies i have and the runners that i know, all of you at your computers in the blogasphere who love running...i'm inspired by you. you all keep me interested in seeing what's possible next time i pull on my running shoes. that's a beautiful thing.

happy running!

A brief on the Half

2006-11-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

Time 2:06:56, average pace 9:31. How I ran 13.33 miles instead of 13.1 (the course according to Garmin) I don't know, but I guess everyone who ran today had to run that far too. Here are the splits: 9:51, 9:24, 9:36, 9:35, 9:31, 9:11, 9:19, 9:25, 9:37, 9:25, 9:22, 9:48, 9:37, last .33 miles 3:08. I felt good until mile 11, after that it was a strugle.

I feel good about today. My splits were pretty even and the momentary parochial "what if's" and "if only's" I entertain don't mention how far I've come. It was a good run.

More later.

Happy Running!

Not to the dogs, with the dogs

2006-10-31T06:22:00.000-08:00

this morning dianne and i met karrie and susan and their dogs for a run. those dogs are becoming such good running dogs. running with a dog seems to smooth out a run somehow. what good pace setters these guys are. it seems to change the rhythm/timing/cadence just a bit for the better. then there's the distraction of having to mind the dog in case it stops, or veers, or we pass another another dog. i'm happy that i don't own a dog but very happy that my friends own well mannered dogs i enjoy.

as i get ready for the half this sunday, some thoughts i've had include:
if i just run a negative split race and don't come out TO fast i think a two hour half is possible.
a nine minute mile pace for a half yields a 1:57 run. a two hour half means a mile time of 9:10.
i hope i don't have to STOP and use the porta-can during the race. i hope i don't have to...i hope i don't...

i have yet to actually register. this is not avoidence behavior at it's best, i just didn't like the shirt last time and they didn't have my size, so why register early?

could i really do it? i could really do it.
i won't be any more ready than i am. right. now.

the last half i ran was this one last year. it was my first race ever. 11:06 mile pace running 8 and 1's.
this year it's a pr.

oh. one more thing. i have an e-mail newsletter from my office, lewisville massage therapy clinic. runner susan did the header and made it look so good. if you send me your e-mail address, i'll send you one.

happy running y'all.

facts in small case

2006-10-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

today was a negative split run for at least 1:30. ran from downing middle school to the lake and back, 9.93 miles. here are the splits: 10:09, 9:33, 9:37, 9:20, 9:13, 9:41, 9:24, 9:21, 9:35, 8:52 for the last.93 miles. couldn't sleep. mild sore throat. pretty upset about things and just churning them in my head so i got up and out to the run at 4:00. no traffic.

came out a bit to fast and to "pushy" for the first two miles. after that i tried to settle in and just hold on to it and see where it took me. at various times in the run i was distracted by my negative, churning thoughts and that would speed up the pace. all in all, the run was ok. here's a quote i came across today.

Well done is better than well said.
- Benjamin Franklin

Be well friends!

Massage Stuff... with Running

2006-10-23T05:32:00.000-07:00

I found lots of very interesting reseach on massage and the effects of touch for a monthly e-newsletter I plan to send out to all my clients. It might be kinda boring but I think it's fasinating.

The top researcher on how touch effects humans is Dr. Tiffany Fields and she has been quite prolific in this regard. The topics of her research are vast and you could click here to read titles and articles (abstracts). I read some of these. Check out numbers 1,8,9,12,16,28,32,31,41. Some of the studies include how massage effects weight gain in premee babys; how massage effects the dopamine and seratonin levels in pregnant women and mothers with depression; how massage effects these same neuro-chemicals in adults, how massage effects ADD and learning disabled kids, and many other studies involving the effects of touch on various segments of the population.

As I was reading through these studies I had this image of many different sized thristy plants being watered and those plants coming to life, turning towards the light and starting to thrive. I wonder what it is about touch that makes it so powerful? Is it intention? Love? Why touch produces the changes it does in people of any age or condition is so amazing. The biological processes that bring about these great changes can be explained in great detail and that only makes the whole process even more fantastic, even more miraculous. Oftentimes I work on people with the thought in mind that I am "fixing" something and that by applying certain techniques to their "problem" I will change it. I'll fix it like a mechanic. Fix that neck that won't turn or a back that won't bend or legs that won't run. Those things do get better. But something else is happening when we touch. Metaphysical Stuff. Magical Stuff. Truely awesome stuff. I could go on and on, and maybe I should so this would be more coherent and not be just a brief phert. Maybe more later on this.

*************************************************************************************

Yesterday's long run was great. 11.5 or so miles in two hours. I finished my 10 mile out and back in 1:45 and jogged the last 15 minutes.

My coach, Gail Leveque, placed 19th in her age group (45-48) at Kona with a time of 12:07:20.
Wow...she's tough.

Happy Running!

Quick Post

2006-10-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

One mile w/u, 2x20 tempo (or 2 miles at tempo) @ 8:18-8:30 with a 5-10 min jog between, one mile cool down. That was what was on the schedule today. I did one mile w/u, 14 min @ tempo, 5-10 min jog, 18 min at tempo, .88 mile cool down.

I came out to fast on the first tempo, but I had already run close to 1.5-1.7 miles when I died. the return tempo interval was over two nice hills and was approx 2 miles. During the last mile I was hurtin' but felt kinda settled and had a nice open stride and good cadence for most of it.

Off to work.
Happy Running!

Trash bag chic

2006-10-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

The bottom pic is a rare shot of me at the height of active fashoin, pre-race in the bin liner or trash bag as we call it here on this side of the pond. The next time I wear one of these I must remember to accessorize correctly; maybe a wide duct tape belt and matching grey gloves.

The little guy is G'son Bryan, I'm feeding him a spoonful of my oatmeal. The top pic is post race with a mouth-full of chocolate chip cookie. Carbs are so important...

St John's Sunshine Run 10K

2006-10-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

Average pace 9:16 mile for 6.35 miles. To make the finish be at home plate in Hammons Field (Springfield, MO. We're here visiting our kids) the race was .15 miles longer. Don't yet know my offical chip time. Splits:10:01, 9:42, 9:14, 9:34, 9:18, 8:18, last .23 miles=1:46 then to the finish was .12 miles=52 seconds. I had a neat experience at the end. I thought I could have picked up the pace before I did and been OK. This race was lots (seemed like mostly) of long gentle uphill climbs, especially mile 4. Temp was great; chilly at the start, 40's with patchy sun. Out of 2,000 runners I was the ONLY ONE wearing a trash bag to keep warm pre-race. There was a band playing at mile 5 and they looked quite cold. This was lots of fun.

Over hill and...over another hll then...

2006-10-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

Yes (such a great word) hills are in my future...my near future. It may sound crazy but bring 'em on. Three weeks ago coach said I wasn't going to do them but I either did something wrong or something right because now they're on the schedule for this week. "For the second hard workout, make it 1 hour of hills where you really attack the climbs, don't worry too much about heart rate, it can go up a bit, just run easy on the descents until it comes back down. Make sure and include a good w/u and c/d." Alrighty then!

Today was fun. I left my watch at home because I took the garmin and my humble HR monitor. When I got to the run and met Susan and Karrie, my garmin died. So I ran a 7mile negative split run by feel and checked the HR monitor. I also was trying to pick it up enough during the run to make it hard but still have a little bit left for the last 1.5 miles.
Average HR was 141 (I think) but never over 151-2. Is that good? I'm 53. If we use the 22o-age formula to figure my max heart rate, that's 167bpm, so 152 might be up there a bit, but I held on and finished well. I was glad it was done, too.

This Saturday Dianne and I are going to Springfield for G-son Bryan's birthday. While we're there we're going to run a 10k on Saturday morning. I'll have some pics and a report next week.

Happy Running!

Our group is growing

2006-10-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

This morning I met Susan and my friend Jim for a run. We're starting to have a real group out here. Pretty soon we'll have to name it. Jim is just starting to run and to try to get used to getting up and out in the dark while everyone else is still asleep.

Here is this scoop on this mornings run. 1 mile WU, 14 min at tempo (supposed to be 15), 5 min recovery, 14:40 at tempo (supposed to 15), 10 min cool down. average HR 141, never over 154, during the interval down to 136.

My pacing needs some tweaking. After the warm up, I went out to fast. It felt good for the first 5 minutes. The next five were still Ok but I still had five minutes to go.
The last four were hard. I guess that's the point. The first mile at tempo pace was like 8:09, which is under the tempo time. About a minute into the interval between the tempos I was thinking,"I get the pacing thing! I'll never come out to fast again!". It's all good. I'm happy and not complaining. Today was rich.

Happy Running!

Great Desert

2006-10-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

This is desert last night. Fresh pinapple, banana, frozen blueberrys, plain yogurt, chopped walnuts, a few crunchy wheat flakes and a drizzle of honey. Yeah, it was good.

Negative splits today. 11:01, 10:09, 9:50, 9:47, 9:24, 9:12, last half mile 4:44. that last half mile could/should have been faster. I wonder how much lifting yesterday affected my legs today? It was kinda humid too.

Happy Running!

The Beat goes on

2006-10-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

This is Jacquelyn, my youngest grand child and only grand daughter. She's not spoiled and never will be. I'll never get my heart back either.

Last week I worked on a woman who's getting ready for Ironman Hawaii (or is it Kona, where's my Runner's World). She looks like a normal human but all those miles on the bike and the road is superhuman stuff. She needed a massage....and still does. Are all of you remembering to stretch and use your foam roller? And get a massage?

Training wise...so far, so good.
Tomorrow morning is a negative split run for 65 minutes on rolling hills.

Reading everyone's blog lately has been so interesting, motivating and inspiring. I haven't had the time to comment, but I have been dropping in. Good luck to all you.

Happy running

Update (boring title)

2006-09-26T05:52:00.001-07:00

What a fabulous day for run. Upper 50's, no wind, clear skies. Six miles, negative splits was up for me today. 10:51, 10:14, 10:01, 9:52, 9:26. 8:56. It felt like I had taken some brand new, factory fresh legs out for their first test drive, not my usual, walking around, working and running legs. Similar with my lungs and their capacity today. A nice run like this could keep me going for quite a few weeks. Oh, long run Saturday was very productive: 90 mins all together over rolling hills with and average heart rate of 130. and covered between 8.5-9 miles. I ran for time, not distance or pace.
As I was talking with a running buddy about the 15K I ran a couple of weekends ago, he asked what my plan was. Plan? I realized right then (yes, it was one of those ah ha moments) that I didn't have a plan. Further, that planning and running were not things I put together that much. I thought I did. I understand the value of having organized traning goals and having a training regimen, I just hadn't been doing it. My plan for running that race and for my training was something I had a concept of. I could even discuss it. I just wasn't actually, really, doing it. Beyond that, I have a strong suspicion that I am running other things in my life this way too. I might be mistaking having a concept and an idea of an expected outcome for having a working, organized plan, like a training plan to prepare for a race. I'm not being very specific here, I know. I'll get back to you on this.

Happy running!

Update (boring title)

2006-09-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

Learning to Run

2006-09-21T04:47:00.000-07:00

Today's 3 mile time trail went well. Here are the splits: 10:19, 7:52, 10:36. I was surprised. I didn't think I would ever run a sub eight. I guess that means my tempos will be in the neighborhood of 8:15-8:30? We'll see what coach has to say.

Happy Running!

Yes Coach

2006-09-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

I met with a coach today about tweaking my training program. She had some very useful suggestions.

Long runs need to be, well, long to build "muscular endurance" and should eventually be over the distance I'm traning for. That comes out to a 2.5 hour run or around 15 miles at a conversational pace on rolling hills.

The tempo runs need to be at a faster tempo. If my desired race pace is 9:00 minute/mile, the tempos should be 8:40 or so. We'll see. Thursday I'll run a trial (10min warm up, one fast mile, 10 min cool down) and see how much faster the tempos can be. About five weeks ago I ran a 8:29 mile for the third mile of a five mile run (the first half of that mile was down hill) so this should be interesting. I'm excited.

Since the my first target race is 6 weeks out, no more hill training. Hills are for building strength and should happen 2-4 months out. I didn't mind hearing that.

There were lots of other encouraging things said and overall I'm pumped.

Happy Running!

More about the Autumn Equinox

2006-09-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

When thinking about the race today, it occured to me that there are three areas were my training could be improved.
First, my long runs need to be, well, long and not a five to eight mile run followed closely by a three to five mile run. Once a week there should be at least an eleven miler and increase it a mile a week to fifteen.
Second, I have yet to do a true tempo run at the pace and length of time that's called for. I see it on the schedule, but it hasn't yet translated into a real thing. My goal pace for the half is 9:00 minute miles. Would that be my tempo pace too?
Third, I would benefit from more yoga and more regular stretching. I'm talking here about taking the opportunity to stretch calves, quads and psoas while I'm waiting for clients to come out of the massage room after a massage. While I'm doing computer stuff, to stretch piriformis and low back before I get up.
If I sound disappointed in my race today, I don't mean to. After thinking about it most of the day, I think it was a great opportunity to see how my training was going and make the needed changes. Those first five miles were great! I want to run more like that.

Autumn Equinox 15K Report

2006-09-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

I got plenty of sleep and woke about 5:00 this morning feeling an edge of anticipation and just a bit disorganized (sleepy). My unoffical time was 1:34:12; a 10:06 minute per mile pace. The splits tale the tale.

8:54
9:08
9:29
9:24
9:25
10:41
11:02 (hill)
10:44
10:34
last .32: 4:46

I knew I was going out to fast, but I did it anyway. It felt good; my stride was comfortable and relaxed, turnover was good, my legs felt strong. Then during mile 6 I couldn't hold it and had to start walking/running. I hoped I would run strong to the finish. The weather was very warm and very humid, but not as hot and humid as it had been last month. Overall this was a good snap shot of where my training is right now and what needs to be done. More about the race later, perhaps.

Happy Running!

2006-09-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

What a great day to run in Texas. At 5:30 it was 60 degrees and there were lots of runners and bikers out this morning. I'm running a 15K this Saturday and I'd like to run in the low 1:20's. We'll see.

My run today was 5.28 miles total doing .88 mile repeats from the middle school down the hill to the stop sign. The warmup trip down was 8:56, then 7:32 back up, 2 min jog, 6:58 down, 2 min jog, 7:25 back up, then a cool down of 1.76 miles.

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. One thing, then another, all of them everyday sorts of things, keep coming up. Before I know it I can't keep my eyes open and focused so it's off to bed. I have been running and lifting, and have been pretty good about logging it, so at the end of this post I'll post my log for September.

Dianne (MBW) has been running too. She's out doing that right now. She's getting so lean. I think if the two of us keep running the way we are we'll both be lean enough to completely disappear in 10 years. I'll keep you updated on that.

Last night I saw a commercial for a nicotine patch that helps one control the urge to smoke. This patch, they say, has something called "smart control". Hmmm. I wondered if "smart control" was something that makes one more smart? less smart? is there a little dial? I wish I'd known about "smart control" before I asked my first wife to marry me. I guess that really doesn't count though, becuase of my son, so that was just a rich learning experience. How many patches would one have to put on to become like John Travolta's chracter in Phenomenon? You know just super smart?I think someone should do some subjective research on this and get back to us.
Oh well. I tried to paste my log in here but it's not happy about that and is not very readable.

Happy running!

A Running First

2006-09-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

The track at the high school was locked up tight theis morning. I know when I'm not wanted. I ran a 2.8 mile loop from Downing Middle School to almost Main St. and back. I thought I would run it twice, the first leg of the first time as a warm up, the back leg, which has a nice long, gentle hill, like I was trying to catch someone who took my winning lottery ticket.

First leg 12:44
Back leg 11:06

I rested for 2 minutes and did it again. Two little problems occured.

I forgot how to use my watch so I didn't get accuate times on the second loop. (what a loser)
On the back leg of the second loop about half way back I got a cramp/stitch in my right upper abdominal muscle and had to walk for half a minute and jog a bit, then resume running.
After a 2 mile cool down I ended up with 7.5 miles for the run. I think I was on track to do at least 11:o something if the cramp hadn't happened. Famous last words, eh.

I've got to get to work! More about the last week, etc. later.

Our Gang

2006-08-31T06:41:00.000-07:00

Five AM at Downing Middle School. Be there or be square. That was the deal for this mornings run with Karrie, Susan and yours truely. Karrie had to finsh quick and get on with the day, so it was a three mile tempo run for her. Susan had a 55 minute run and I was running along for the fun of it. 4.5 or so miles today with no watch or tracking device of any kind. I felt unfettered and alive...OK, maybe that's a bit much, but it was nice to get out and run for the fun of it. The temp was cool, maybe below 70, and Orion is visable now above the eastern horizon. When you see him it means fall is here and another summer has run it's course.

Tuesday's track thing was interesting. After a 2 mile warm up I ran 400's; the 1st was at 2:30, the second at 2:00. I did 4 reps with a half mile cool down. I guess the football team is done with two-a-days as they were not there. I felt like a bit of a slacker, but I felt refreshed the rest of the day and not stiff or sore. Wednesday's run was 6 miles in 57:33. Tomorrow will be something challenging, hills maybe. We'll see.

Have a great day everyone!

How Low Can You Go?

2006-08-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

I wish I was talking about speed here. I'm talking about blood sugar. Fuel. Or lack of it in my case. Today my plan was to run 8 by myself, then go to Lake Grapevine with Karl, Cindy and Dianne to run the trails on the north shore of the lake. A family run. Karl is training for his first marathon and has a good chance to qualify for Boston. That boy can run. He's 26 years old, so he'll need to run a 3:10, which is very do-able for him.
Anyway, back to fuel.
My easy 8 this morning got harder because I thought it would be fun to do 3/1 pickups. I did fine for the first 4 miles, ran straight for the next three miles, then had to stop for some traffic .8 miles from home and never started running again.
Oh yea, the fuel.
When I got home, I drank Endurox and munched almonds and raisins on the drive to the lake. One mile into the trail run I was feeling pretty noodly schmoodly and my vision was getting kinda funny, so I walked the rest. total mileage for the trail was just over 4. By the end I had mostly recovered, but it would've been so much better if I had eaten some real food; toast with P butter, a little oatmeal, or some eggs, (or all of those) and saved the Endurox for the ride home. I like Endurox. Using it instead of real food was a mis... miscalculation.
Today grand children are coming over. Their parents will bring them and will stay, of course, and we will talk to them some and they will help cook dinner so they will be useful. Those Gkids. They are so cute, its amazing they have any fingers of toes left for grandparents wanting to eat them.

Oh BTW, I have noticed that many bloggers have posted about having their ass handed to them recently. So my fellow runners, PUT YOUR ASS BACK ON NOW, if you haven't, and get out there and

Run for it!

Will it go 'round in circles

2006-08-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

Today's title is the title of that Billy Preston song. Do you remember it? I wonder if he worked out on a track?

Today's track workout was: two mile warm up, 20 bleachers without the pushups and crunches, one mile cool down. It was fun watching the football team doing their drills and doing plyo stuff while I was in the bleachers and doing my cool down. It was still dark at 6:15 when they started, so they turned on the field lights. All the field lights. It was like high noon, which took all the mystery out of running, and seeing, those bleachers.

So long untill next time!

Halves of a long run

2006-08-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

I split my long run up today running 5 at 5:00, then 6.12 with Dianne, Karl and Cindy (my kids) on that neat rail trail at 6:30. My fastest four miles were the last four with mile ten around 9:30. Does splitting a long run up like that really count as a long run? I've read that many runners do this, some who don't/won't. Are miles miles and it doesn't matter or is it better to complete a distance from start to finish and why?
My cold seems to be gone. Have a good week!

Flashbacks on the bleachers

2006-08-18T16:47:00.000-07:00

My cold/alergy thing felt better this morning. It's been weird cause it isn't like a sinus infection, I just have a running nose and the glands in my neck are swollen and I can't breathe that well when I try to go to sleep, other than that, I'm fine and I've been working.
I've been taking it easy this week running wise with a four miler on Wednesday so today I went to the track. It was just a bit HOT and HUMID so I thought I would warm up (2 miles) and do some bleachers/pushups/crunches. My goal was 10 bleachers and on the 7th one I had that tunnel vision flashback feeling thing happen. After I sat for a minute, I finished the last 3 then went to the Y and lifted for a short bit. It seems like an ideal week to rest. Sunday I hope for a long run, how far I'm not sure. So long till next time.

Run for it!

Quick catch up

2006-08-15T06:47:00.000-07:00

I have a summer cold. I will determine what to do about my clients today when I get to the office. It started Saturday afternoon. I ran with Dianne and Karl on Sunday morning (2 miles by myself, 7 running out and back to Dianne on the Denton Rail Trail) and that was OK, but it got worse as the day went on. Didn't run Monday or today. A large part of me missed going to the track today to do 800's, but it was pretty sweet to just stay in bed and rest.

It is so inspiring to read Zeke's blog, Simon Says...Run, and D's ,I don't need a shrink, and the rest of you, and Susan and Karrie, my friends. You all keep me motivated and that is a very wonderful thing.

Run for it!

Thoughts

2006-08-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

This morning I found myself thinking that the 4x800's I did yesterday were pretty paltry. It went something like," only 4x800's and only under 4:00 mins, and only a total of 6 miles yesterday...". I had ONLY SYNDROME! Thinking that way is always never a good thing.

Today the trails at the lake were soft and not dusty because of a good rain 2 days ago. It was HUMID and hot though, even at 6:00AM. With it being so nice and hot out, it doesn't take long to warm up. When I got home, BW was just leaving to run 4 miles, so I went out with her till my legs wanted to walk, which was after 2 miles. That's all for now.

minimalist

2006-08-06T12:50:00.000-07:00

not the run, the post. 11.6 miles this morning with the time not a consideration (2:20ish). finished the week with 30ish miles. nothing else of note, amigos.

Blog on

Easy Day

2006-08-04T04:45:00.000-07:00

Here's our next emergency stop

Three miles, 34:22. My Beautiful Wife and I ran together and didn't talk much. Too early to try that. As we ran along, I noticed her form looks relaxed and comfortable, her breathing was relaxed, too. She looked great.

.

Bare Facts

2006-08-03T04:49:00.000-07:00

Five mile run; 9:54, 9:20, 8:29, 9:25, 9:41, seemed hard today from the first step. Hmmm. Some days are like that. If this is as hard as any day gets, YOHOOO, what a gift... Hey, how 'bout mile three?

...A little cheese with that whine?

2006-08-02T06:53:00.000-07:00

Man, I was whiney yesterday. Sorry.
Dianne bought some trail shoes and we went out to Lake Grapevine to try 'em out. She got dirtier than the shoes. She fell. No harm done...now she can say she is a trail runner.

On the Track

2006-08-01T05:59:00.000-07:00

My times were okay, however, I lacked the will to finish all five 800's, only doing 3, then 3x 400's. It was hard, I had a hard time getting it done, blah, blah, blah. Reading about how many of you get your workout done and how quick you seem to be is very impressive and motivating. Doing it myself is quite another matter. I wish reading about it was all I had to do.

Mid-Week Round Up

2006-07-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

Tuesday is interval day and 4x800's were on the schedule with a 2 mile warm up and a one mile cool down. I wimped out and ran 3x800's, then a 400. Time on the 800's: 1st 4:05, 2nd 4:07, 3rd 4:15, the 400 was 1:57. Slacker! Next week will be 5x800 at 4:05-4:15, same warm up and cool down. I ran an 8K on the 4th of July and my average pace was around 9:30 per mile so I'm using roughly that pace for the 800's, then jogging 400 to recover.

Wednesday is trail day at Lake Grapevine and yesterday the really fast people didn't make it to the 6:00am run and the pace was a bit easier at the beginning. I ran the whole hour, a bit over 5 miles, without having to stop to walk. I went back out with the 7:00am group, but stayed only untill I had seven miles and called it a day.

Today was a six miler and my pace was pretty fast. 59:34 was the time, but here are the splits: 9:44, 9:23, 9:29, 9:37, 9:24, 11:53. The last mile was a little slower because Karrie drove up and we stopped in the street and talked for a couple of minutes. She and Susan were out today too.

My race goals are to run three half marathons this fall/winter: The Half, The White Rock Half Marathon, and the Austin Half Marathon. At least one of those will be my 2 hour half. Maybe they'll all be.

A friend sent these to me. The first is a guitar player, the second a drummer. Has anyone seen these guys before? Enjoy! http://view.break.com/131576 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZTF8keR5vU&NR

too boring for a title

2006-07-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's run, an easy four miles without caring about the pace, was eventful. When I got out of the car at susan's the smell of something burning was very strong. As we ran through her neighborhood, we passed a large, newly constructed house blazing away while many firemen and pieces of fire equiptment were dealing with it. I've never seen that on a run before. It so happened that one of the firemen on that fire was a guy from my running club. You know how people you're used to seeing at the gym look funny when you see them with street clothes on? Seeing Fireman Ken dressed for work instead of being dressed to run was so like that.

11 miles today, 10:29 average pace. The effort on the last 5.5 was much better than the first 5.5. My garmin decided to do some creative lap splitting, so I'm not quite sure what my actual splits are. Why would it decide that it needed to start a new lap at .42 into the second mile of my run, than record lap 4 as .20 miles and lap 14 as .38 miles? That I know of, I've only programed it to record each lap as a mile with no auto pause, auto lap, etc. I think it may have memorized the route and when I stopped at Susan's at .4 miles into mile 2 to meet her, stopped to "rest" at .2 miles into mile 3, it did some auto pausing and lap splitting on it's own. Has anyone seen this kinda thing before?

It was so cool this morning

2006-07-21T05:10:00.000-07:00

It was actually cool enough this morning to get just normally sweaty, not drenched and dripping. The temps outside the backdoor are currently 80 degrees and not too very humid, almost long sleeve weather compared to earlier in the week. I'm thinking it was even cooler at 5:30.

I *discovered* a great high intensity work out that doesn't take much time. Bleachers. I know Try already has this down using his trusty stepper, but I like being outside. Today's work out; 10 bleachers, 100 pressups, 100 crunches, 2 mile jog.

By running tomorrow and Sunday I 'll have a 6 day running week. I want to bump up my mileage (30-35 miles per week) and get used to running more days in a row.

Another good foodie book is "What to Eat" by Marion Nestle.

Have a great weekend!

How sweaty was it?

2006-07-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

This isn't the set up to something really gross. Today, for the first time, as I was walking from the trail to the club house, I could feel my sweat dreched socks sucking away from my shoes with each step. I just have never been as sweaty as I was today. What a good run though, even though I had to walk a bit at the end. 2.6 miles on the road, 4.5 on the trail. Total time running was 1:29.

I'm not sure I enjoyed an addiction this much.

Want a fun read? Check out " The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan.

Have Fun!

Civil Standby

2006-07-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

Today I learned a new term and I have a story to tell.

Just this last Saturday I had the non-pleasure of telling a therapist who has been working in my office for the last three and a half years that Saturday was her last day and I wanted her things out of the room she had been using by Monday at noon. Because this person is not an employee and we didn't have any written agreement, it was legal, and a relief, to simply tell her goodbye. Yes, there is a story there, but those details won't get told.

Today I arrive at my office at noon and there were two police cars in the parking lot. Have the police come to check their mail at the P.O. box store next door to us? Are they buying medical supplies from the medical supply store two doors down? No. They were at my office doing Civil Standby. Some of you may know what that is, but it was a new one for me. I walk in to the office with my *day off* attire on and ask the officers if I can help them. No, they offhandedly say. As I walk around the front desk in the reception area and sit down, I ask them why they are here. Civil Standby they say. I ask, and they explain that Civil Standby happens when someone calls them to be present when there may be a situation where things could get, ahhh, uncivil. I was surprised. The therapist and her husband finished loading her stuff and they and the officers left after about 20 minutes.
I don't have a violent bone anywhere. I guess I'm naive, too. I wonder what made that therapist think that having the police present would be a good thing *just in case? Maybe she called the cops so she would keep her cool. ??

I know this is a running blog. Sorry for the dump. Get out there and...

Run for it.

A great day for LSD

2006-07-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

That's what today was, a great morning for a long slow run. Ran for 10 miles at an average pace of 12:07. Dianne, RunnerSusan and I started out from my house at five o'clock and it was nice and steamy and as cool as it was going to get today.

It's been such a groove to run with Dianne. The changes running has made in her are so very cool. I'm a lucky man, people. Today she did 5.5 miles by running out 2.25 with us then turning back to the house. She ran continuously for the first 1.25 miles.

This Tuesday a group of us, RunnerSusan, Karrie, BW and I, and our buddy Sharon, are meeting at the Flower Mound High School track at 5:30. This is starting to be a regular Tuesday thing. FMHS has a nice track and some big ass bleachers that'll burn your legs right off, which reminds me of a joke.* All this and humidity too!

Today after church Dianne and I had lunch with our youngest son Karl and his wife and some friends and their kids. Only 8 of our friends' 11 kids were there today and those are some neat, neat people. Those kids, from the oldest, who has been in the army for 6 years and just started officer training, to the youngest, who is a 2nd grader, are so confident, laid back and well adjusted. If they had time, I wish our friends Ken and Ruth would write a book on parenting, or at least tell some stories. Here's one I heard today. One of the boys, who at the time of the story is 6 yrs old and doesn't know how to swim, had been at his aunts house playing in the pool. Auntie gave him a pair of swimming googles. The boy takes these on vacation. At the hotel pool on vacation he dons the googles and jumps into the deep end of the pool and sinks to the bottom like a rock. Dad sees this, freaks out and jumps in after him fully clothed, and pulls him out. Once out, the boy takes off the googles, looks at them carefully for a moment then tosses them away saying," well, those don't work." Great story...

GREAT SCOTT! Look at the time. I'm going to bed...

Run for it!

2006-07-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

Isn't this a great picture? Grandson Curlyboy caught his first fish.

The actual time for the 8K was 47:51, my watch had 47:39 because...ahemm... this was a small race, the first short race I have ever run, and one without chip timing. When the race announcer called the start, like said, "ready, set, GO!", I didn't start my watch. I was thinking, "was that it?" I asked Karrie where the starting line was and when to start my watch. "Now!".....I got a *look* from Karrie. She didn't look over her sunglasses at me or anything, it was just a little look. I started my watch and we began moving out. That little exchange took 12 seconds. Here are my splits:
m1 9:36
m2 9:48
m3 9:19
m4 9:28
m5 9:07
the last 200ft took 19 seconds

That was a fun race. It was overcast with a slight breeze and only moderate humidity so it wasn't to hot. .
Dianne also ran this race and finished in 1:02:something, i don't remember just what. We will be doing more sort races in the future. Dianne just informed me that one will be a 10K in Springfield, MO in October. We'll be there for Brian's (Curlyboy's little brother) 2nd birthday.

Question for you trail runners. You are the first one on the trail and its just light enough to see your way. What do you do about all those spider webs? The big ones that fully cover the trail like an arachnid fast food franchise with the big spider in the middle of it? Do you carry a stick? Wait for the mountain bikers to go through first? Run through with your mouth open? I've run through strands of web before and after a run had to pull webs of my hat, no big deal, but today was different than that.

Blog on friends.

Not much going on here, how 'bout you?

2006-07-09T17:43:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty boring lately. Not much to blog about. Ran an 8K on the 4th and did fine...

Blog on friends.

Its getting better all the time

2006-06-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

Nancy Toby cracked me up. Bolder took a picture of his old bike and posted it and in the picture was the loud speaker for his alarm system in the garage. Nancy asked why there was a loud speaker in the shot then asked if he lived in a fire station. I guess you just had to be there.

Running has been good lately, fairly consistant as far as getting out the door to go do it. Milage is not something I'm overly concerned with right now (25-30 a week) because the races I want to train for are November through February. It has been fun running with karrie and Dianne and encouraging Dianne. She doesn't realize it yet, but she will soon be running away from me at any races we run together. Today she ran 3.25 miles in 37:53, an 11:38 mile pace which is impressive for a person who is starting their 3rd month of running. Remember yours...and why you thought you wanted to try running in the first place?

Today was 6 miles at a comfortable pace, which turned out to be just over 10 minute miles. Tomorrow is 3 miles with the last 2 quick, like a 5K pace, then Sunday a long run of 11-12 miles.

Dianne and I were treated to lunch yesterday by Gail, the assistant manager at the local running shoe store RunOn. While we talked about training, she said something I thought was very cool. It goes something like this," When I started running, I ran 11 and 12 minute miles, but even when I started to get faster and the training got much more intense, I always liked it. I guess that's my gift." I think we all do.

2006-06-30T06:15:00.000-07:00

Hello, I must be Going

2006-06-22T08:17:00.000-07:00

I havn't post any running stuff in such a long time. I haven't been stalking around much, either. I have been running, however, and I'm enjoying running with the club I joined. I've been keeping myself busy with work related things, part of which were the last couple of posts, but this, after all, is a running blog...

Over the last three weeks I've been running trails once or twice a week, a track work out once a week and a long run of 11 miles on Sunday. On the off days I've been cross training by lifting with Karrie or Dianne (BW) or going to spin class and checking in with my buds there. Those guys at the 5:15am spin class are a scrapy, dedicated bunch. I love those guys.

Here are the stats for the track workout Tuesday: one mile warm up, 400x2=1:46 for both, 800x2=the first at 3:47, the second at3:55 then two more 40o's, the first one was 1:51, the second was 1:49. Yesterday was a five mile tempo run and my goal was to run the middle three miles around 9:30, then take it easy on the last mile. After the warm up mile, mile two was 9:24, mile three 8:31, mile four 9:33, mile five 10:34.

I've never run a sub 9:00 mile before. This mile started on a slight down hill and the pace felt comfortable as long as I was going downhill. When the road flattened out I had to push it but towards the end, like the last 200 meters, I started to settle in to it just a bit. I can't say it became comfortable, but I did get into a groove and I managed to see some new territory I'd like to run into again. How people run 26 miles at this pace is nothing short of a miracle to me.

Now that Dianne is running with Susan, Karrie and me, we have an actual group. A couple of weeks ago Karrie, Dianne and I met at the Flower Mound High track and did our various workouts. What was nice was we were all doing something different, but there together. Dianne liked gettng up at 5:00 to do it, too. Miracles abound.

Piriformis: part 2

2006-06-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

These symptoms: pain in the hip(s) and/or butt, pain radiating from the hip area down the into thigh, back, front or side of the leg, into the groin area, radiating down into the calf or ankle or down into the shin area, can be caused by trigger points in these muscles: illiopsoas, quadratus lumborum, piriformis, the glutes= Max, Medius and Minimus, tensor fascia lata. This isn't an exhaustive list (the whole truth), but these are the major players. The above symptoms can also be the result of a nerve entrapment caused by tension and imbalance in the soft tissues around the nerves (not just the sciatic) or a combination of these two factors. Also, when the sacrum is out of align because of trigger points in the piriformis, this can not only be painful, but can be a self perpetuating.

Here is the bottom line. The pain, weakness and imbalance caused by trigger points is a major factor in all the above symptoms. So often, when the trigger points are cleared and the muscles are returned to their normal resting length, the pain, weakness and imbalance goes away.

This pain that goes away can be a dull, aching pain felt deep in the joint, or it may feel like the pain is way under a muscle or area. Pain can also feel sharp and on the surface. Burning, stinging and pins and needles are other words used to express how the pain feels. We could continue describing many different ways one experiences pain,but when muscles are cleared of trigger points and muscles can return to their normal resting length, the symptoms in the first paragraph go away or lessen. Because of this, getting effective body work is essential. The trick is to find someone and use them as regularly as one can.

Call me. I can get you in tomorrow ; )

Happy running!

Piriformis Muscle: stretches and other considerations

2006-06-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

This is a stretch sequence for the piriformis muscle. The bottom picture is the beggining of the sequence, the second picture is a good place to stretch and the last picture is an even greater degree of stretch. This is the yoga pose called pidgeon. The more flexible you are, the farther underneath of you your leg will fold. If I was as flexible as some people are, my left ankle would be a foot further up, almost in my armpit. I have not posted the modifications to this pose for those less flexible folks, but can.

A question was raised about piriformis syndrome and sciatica. The January 22, 2006 post on this blog has an illustration of the piriformis muscle and it's pain referral areas and an illustration of the muscle with all the other structures around it, most notably the sciatic nerve and the opening the sciatic nerve and the piriformis muscle both exit from. There is good information on the piriformis muscle, how to treat trigger points in it yourself and how to stretch it in The Trigger Point therapy Workbook, page 180 to 184. It's time to sleep. More tomorrow on piriformis syndrome and sciatica and other muscles that, when they have trigger points, present like sciatica.

Back Stretches and other (hopefully) useful stuff

2006-06-12T18:39:00.000-07:00

My intent and hope is to post specific stretches for the mucles of the back that are most often involved when people experience back pain. There can be different origins for back pain and I will try to mention some some here: nerve root pain (radiculopathy) and various other ways nerve structures can get impinged, pain from bulging discs, degenerative nerve and muscle diseases... but, according to Travell and Simmons, most back pain is from muscles.

Now, here comes the disclaimer/warning: if you try these stretches and it hurts, stop. If you haven't gone to see the doc, chiropractor, D.O. or other pro about a problem that bothers or worries you, you should.
OK, onward to the stretches.
The first one is for the muscle Quadratus Lumborum. To see a more detailed drawing of it go to the February 5, 2006 post in the archives of this blog. The other muscles in that post, gluteus medius and minimus,
will be covered later, hopefully this week. The quadratus lumborum goes between the 12th rib and the top edge of the hip bone.

To stretch it, one has to lengthen the distance between those two places, crest of the hip bone and the ribs. Lying over an exercise ball is a good way to do that. The QL to be lengthened is on top. If a ball isn't handy, lying at the edge of the bed can work well, too. What dials the stretch in is the angle you're laying at. Try to make your hips perpendicular to the floor.

A good book on how to treat muscle pain yourself, "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook", by Clair Davies has great info about QL on pages 169 to 172. Chapter 8 is about back pain.

The next muscle to stretch, and to be aware of, is the psoas muscle. Here are some links about your psoas muscle with pictures and stretches. The trigger point book I mentioned earlier has a good section it this muscle from pgs 151 to154. I would gladly post my own pictures , but Blogger wont let me uplaod any more pictures. WTF? I'm sure operator error is a factor.

Happy Birthday Twins

2006-06-06T05:19:00.000-07:00

I 'm not talking about the baseball team, or alluding to breasts, buns or balls. I'm refering to all us moody, mercurial Gemini people. Happy birthday to all you twins out there.

Sunday morning saw a fine, early run; 11 miles in 2:00:43. Thats a 10:58 min mile pace. Monday was an early lifting session at the Y with Karrie and yoga at 10:30am. I needed that yoga class. I was walking around like a really old guy, all creaky and not standing up straight after getting up from a chair or the car.

Something else that helped yesterday was a free demo session from this chiropractor who did ART, which is Active Release Therapy. This technique has it's foundation in Myofascial Release, is not gentle, subltle, or painless and is VERY effective. It took Dr Tim five minutes to stretch both my psoas muscles and my right quadratus lumborum and I could stand erect, walk and move without restriction.

I ran quarter mile repeats today, 10 minute warm up, 8 reapeats all at or under 2 minutes with a one minute jog between them and I could tell a noticable difference. It seemed easier to run relaxed while running with effort because or the psoas work Dr. Tim did. I do psoas work, it was just nice to have someone do it to me and do it well. Oh, total mileage today, with the warm up and cool down, was 5.75. Not a bad day so far. Tomorrow will be trails at Grapevine Lake, God willing.
Blog on amigos.

Just the Facts

2006-06-02T05:28:00.000-07:00

Today was a 6 mile run. Made it back in 58:52. After the spinning class yesterday and the trail run on Wednesday, my legs felt kinda stiff at first, but strong, and my turn over felt quicker. The first 4 miles were great, quick, wind in my hair (across my head, really). Then my legs started to get heavy and tight feeling. I slowed a bit, walked for 30 seconds, then finished up the last mile, with my legs, and spirits, lifting. I think that last mile is always easier.

Since I started running I have developed an interesting new problem. My clothes don't fit anymore and my beltbuckle overhang is gone. So, now when I buy clothes, I don't know what size I wear anymore. It takes so much longer to buy stuff now. Poor ME. Lo Ciento! Es tut mier leit!

No Title, just run

2006-05-31T07:18:00.000-07:00

Dianne and I went to Springfeild, MO to see the kids and grandsons over the weekend and while there I ran 8 miles on the South Creek trail, a paved trail that runs close to the kids house. My time was 1:27. Dianne and I went back later that evening and walked another three.

Today I went out to the lake and ran with Fireman Ken and Rick on the trails. I love that trail stuff. We ran for an hour, I don't know what the mileage was. My legs felt like jello at the end, it was great. There were 3 of us running at 6:00 and about 12 in the 7:00am group. I like those people. Tomorrow I"ll run or go lift and do the 5:15am spinning class at the Y. I'll decide later.
Make it good friends.

Trail Run

2006-05-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

Wednesday I ran trails on the South side of Grapevine Lake with the Lake Grapevine Runners and Walkers. I'm joining, too. There were three of us for the 6:00 am run, 10 or so showed up for the 7:00am run. The group is pretty laid back on the whole and is large enough to include runners of all intensities. I feel at home there even though I'm pretty close to the back of the pack right now. I think running with them will help move me towards that 2 hr half I want to run this winter. The stats on Wednesday's run are unclear; 5-6 miles in somewhere around 50-55 minutes...i forgot to stop my watch.
Today I ran with a friend who just started running and also just started running outside, off the tread mill. We ran the first mile and a half then did 5x1's for the rest. Time for 4 miles: 45:32.

Running+Appetite=Great Quesedilla

2006-05-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

I thought about titling this post 'Holy Quesedilla, Batman...and then something clever would go here, but I was full and could not think of anything clever to complete the rest of the Batman statement.

Anyway, pictured above is a really good quesedilla that has blue cheese, chopped walnuts and sliced pear in it. We used a good tortilla; organic, no aluminium in the baking powder, etc. and domestic blue cheese, (the cheap stuff).

Whoa! It was great! Someone at church told Dianne about this yesterday. I think its an interesting (strange) combination of ingredients. I would never have said," Hmmm, I have some blue cheese and some tortillas, what else could I put together with this that would be good? I've got it, I'll just slice up this pear and and put some walnuts in there and poof,"... well, I wish I'd thought of it because it's really good. I guess I need to get out more. Does Rachel Ray know about this quesedilla?

When Dianne said she was going to make this, I said what I usually do when she's going to cook something that sounds a bit offbeat,"That's sounds great honey". See, I'm the guy who dipped the Chips Ahoy cookies in ranch dressing, so what have I got to lose? Making this thing was super easy too. It took 5 minutes.

OK, no running today. BW and I went to the Y and lifted. She also got in a 3 miler on the treadmill doing 3X1's. After that we went to yoga, which today was a little different and more challenging that usual. The woman that subbing for the usual teacher for today's class was very soft spoken and quietly kicked some Monday yoga butt. Her training is more from the Ashtanga/power yoga tradition, so we did lots of going from plank to down dog to lunging, back to plank to updog to down dog, etc. Just what I needed after yesterday's run.
Tomorrow's running menu is Farleks for thirty minutes, with approp. warm up and cool down, at 5:00 with Susan.

Run long and prosper.

Lets Recap

2006-05-21T17:46:00.000-07:00

Since I have'nt talk to you all since Monday, here is the week, such as it was.
Tuesday. Ran 3 miles with Karrie and man! my legs were tired. My time for three... 3:31:35. I had gone to San Francisco last weekend and my arms were very tired after flying back from there too...anyway, on that 3 miler with Karrie I had to walk for a couple of minutes at mile 2, but that s'ok. I thought since I was recovering from the 8 mile trail run with Susan on Monday an easy 3 would be fine, I would just run some more and some better starting on Wednesday, maybe a tempo run...yea, a tempo run, that would be great.

Wednesday came and went without any running, no gymming and lifting, no spinning, nada.

OK, Thursday. I'll get it done. I did. I went to the 5:15 spinning class at the Y, followed(I thought) by a three mile run with BW. The three miler did'nt happen, but I did go to spinning.

Friday. Alright. Now I've got some momentum. The trouble is, it just didn't carry me very far...I think, but I'm not sure. I don't remember if I went to the gym on Friday, or did any form of exercise on Friday. Actually I'm not sure what happened to Friday, I'll have to check my appointment book at the office and gather some clues as to my where'bouts. I was'nt drinking or stoned, I stopped that a long time ago, like, I still had hair the last time...I just can't seem to remember Friday.

Saturday was the outcall massage in Dallas at 7:30am. I have to leave the house at 6:40 to get there on time. Then two sessions at the office followed by babysitting my youngest grandchild, Jacq. She just figured out she loves being in the pool, even when she's kind of shivering a bit.

Sunday! Yay! I am going to run today, by God. I met Susan at 7:00 and we ran 12 miles. My finish time was 2:21. I could claim the heat slowed me down, or that I'm not being used to running at that time of the morning, or that there were some really great hills on this run and those claims would be accurate. Also accurate is the Fact. that I just ran 12 miles slower than all three half marathons I ran. So... I'm getting older and slower? Hey, if this is the worst thing that happens to me all week, it aint such a bad week. I'm not bitching, just pointing out that this comming week will have more mileage and it will be spred out differently than the last week, that's all. I feel that a few more weeks of base training, more mileage though, is going to be the thing to do. Over the next month I'll get my long runs up to 14-15 miles and run 25-30 miles a week, then start thinking about what comes next.
Run away, run away!

Hitting the Dusty Trail

2006-05-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

I ran with Susan today for the first 8 miles of her last 20 mile run before San Diego. We ran on the trails at the north side of Grapevine Lake. The weather was perfect. So perfect, I had a hard time remembering where I was because the weather was the same here today as it was in San Francisco (Yay Peet's Coffee) over the weekend. This was the second time I had done trail running and I was in much better shape this time... and I didn't get lost. I want to do more of it very soon. The air was fresh, everything was green, there was a breeze off the lake...sounds like I'm making it up, huh? It was really awesome. Thinking about and remembering this day could keep me going on days when...you know those days.
Today's stats: 8-9 miles in 1:40. 8 miles=12:30 min/mi, 9 miles=11:07min/mi. This was followed by a 80 min yoga class at the Y, then breakfast.

A Good Quote

2006-05-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

"Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb." Sir Winston Churchill

Dianne said something interesting/cute tonight while we were eating dinner and talking about working out and running. "I'm starting to think of food as fuel now and not just as recreation."

Today was spinning and a three mile run with my Beautiful Wife.

Here are a phew more jokes.

Q: What's the difference between a drum and an onion?
A: Know one cries when you cut up a drum.
Q: How do tell if the stage is level?
A: The drummer is drooling out of both sides of his month.
Q: How many bass players does it take to change a light bulb?
A: 5, 1 to change the bulb and 4 to hold the lead guitarist out of the light.
Q: What is the difference between a musician and a savings bond?
A: Eventually the bond will mature and earn money.

Thanks! Please remember to tip your waitress, just don't tip her over.

And Now...

2006-05-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

here's a joke, a musican joke, OK two jokes, or so, sent to me by my buddy Architech John who plays guitar, bass and would likely never run.

A jazz musician dies and goes to heaven. To his delight, he learns when he gets there that he will be joining the big band. The saxophones are Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Harry Carney. The trumpets include Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Roy Eldridge. The trombones are equally great. Papa Jo Jones is on drums, Oscar Pettiford on bass and Art Tatum is on piano. But when he gets to the first rehearsal Gil Evans, the arranger-conductor, pulls him aside and says: "Listen, I just have to warn you about one thing. God has this girlfriend who sings..."

Small wonder we have so much trouble with air pollution in the world when so much of it has passed through saxophones.

And Now... about running.
At this point, my goal races are The Half in November and the half at the White Rock Marathon in December. Currently I'm running about 20-25 miles a week, some with BW, some with Susan. I have not been doing any speed work, farleks or tempo runs, keeping the pace b/t 10 and 11 minute miles. The goal of running a two hour half is still haunting me. I will start to think about "Training" for my races sometime in August. It would be fun to run some 5Ks with Dianne when our lives calm down a little more in a couple of weeks. Come run with us.

Sunday's run was 10miles with Our Susan with a time of 2 hrs. Slow...mmmyea, but there were hills. It was a good steady run for me. My long runs have'nt been over 5-6 miles in a couple of weeks.

Today, so far, I lifted with Our Karrie, ran 4 miles on the dreadmill (2 miles at 10:30, 2 at 9:30) at the Y next to Dianne while she ran 4 miles doing 3x1's, then we went to yoga. Mondays are so great.

Sorry I missed out on Flatman's auction as I'm in the market for a garmin, so if anyone has a good used one they would consider parting with, please tell me.

Have you heard the one about the guy who held 100 accordion players hostage and, unless he was given $10,000,000.00, threatened to release one an hour?

Thank You! I'll be here all week. Try the salad bar!

2006-05-05T19:14:00.000-07:00

It rained a lot last night, so we thought (very) briefly about running on the trails at lake Grapevine but ran on the road instead. The weather was clear, the air scrubbed and warm but not hot. Just three miles. I was curious to see how I would feel after donating blood on Wednesday and it was OK. The plan for tomorrow is to run 3.5 with Dianne, who is going to try 3x1's. Tune in tomorrow mates and see how we did.

2006-05-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

Wow! I haven't blogged since Aprill 27th?! I have run since then.. and I assure you I haven't missed a meal or gone without sleep. I have been busy doing...stuff. You know...stuff? Working, running a bit, working some more, I look up and...I have forgotten to go to the blog world and see how everyone is!
Yesterday I ran 3 miles with Susan. It was going to more like a 6 miler I thought, but she was still recovering from the trail run and was secretly testing her new bra. I was more than happy, which is pretty damn happy, to run 3 instead of 6 because I was tired. I've gotten out of the habit of getting up at 4:00 to run at 5:00 and I'm not sure when that happened.
Yesterday afternoon I ran 3 more miles with Dianne at the Y. Dainne is doing so well with running. She doesn't think running 2x2's is "really running". Her longest run so far is 4.5 miles, all done running 2x2's. During that run she felt good enough to run for 5 minutes continuously on three intervals. Yoohoo!
Last weekend we went to a yoga retreat. Our favorite teacher at the Y, and also the best, most experienced, put it together. I have never done that much yoga in such a short stretch of time, 5 sessions in three days. I was stiff and sore, more so than from running.
I must be off! This post was pretty much a stream, well, dribble random thoughts. More random,better organized thoughts latter.

Get outta that bed...

2006-04-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

My bed felt sooo good today. I didn't want to get up, but today is going to be a long, busy one so I shoved off for six miles this morning around 4:30. I ran by myself in the neighborhood South of my house, a land where drivers just can't figure out why those runners are out so darmed early and they run in the road. Someone honked at me today (all reflecting with blinking light going) as they saw me in plenty of time to move to the vacant ajoining lane but did not. sheesh!
My time for 6 mi was 59:45. The first mile was around 9:30, the rest were a bit slower, I didn't clock any of the rest. Once I got out the door and started running, my plans for the day became clear and the worry (the "how will I evers") could be let go. Ah, running.
BW and I are going to a yoga retreat this weekend put togethter by our Y yoga teacher. If we go to all the sessions offered this weekend we will have done 5 yoga sessions b/t Friday night and Sunday noon. We will try to get at least one run in some where during the weekend, too.

Running into the wind...

2006-04-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

is what we did on the way back during our six miler this morning. Both of us were quiet, a switch from the usual banter that goes on when we run. I wonder if the people in the houses close to the road know our voices and tell their dogs to stop barking when we run by at 5:15 or 5:30 in the morning. My time for 6mi was 60:53. After running out 3 miles and warming up, I wanted to pick up the pace a bit, but do it subtly. I put the idea in my head that I was increasing my turn over by being aware of how my heels came up during that part of my stride. As if by imagining that my heels were kind of springing up, my turn over was increasing. My last mile time was around 9:30, which respectable for me and was an interesting mind game. Maybe my next mind game should be imagining I'm Jeff at the Amazing Hip.
Beautiful Wife and I are continuing to run 2x2's. Her current schedule is 2.5 miles on Tuesday, 3 miles on Thursday, and 4 (maybe 4.5 if I can sneak it in) on Saturday. It looks to me like it's getting easier for Dianne as she now completes the two minute run portion without fudging and can often talk during the running portions. YaY BW!
Not to many miles north of us is a rails to trails trail. We ran up there last Saturday and Susan and I ran on it Monday morning. The trail is paved with gravel, is nice and level, has a tree canopy in quite a few places and lots of shade from the afternoon sun, and sure makes my legs feel good later in the day. So much nicer than concrete.

My Tubs

2006-04-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

These are my drums, set up on the platform (what they call the stage) at the church I attend. Seated is my friend and guitar player/singer Suzanne. Seated behind these I can reinforce bad postural habits and leave the world behind, same as running! They are my precious and although I haven't licked them or dusted them in a while, I have sweated on them and they make me smile.
More about running tomorrow.

What a day for a daydream

2006-04-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

Guess what song was in my head when I started this post? Ran 10 easy miles with Susan this morning. Our times were basically the same; altho my time was 1:49 :34, I quit running 30 seconds or so before we had reached 10 miles. On the way back the wind was against us but the temp was good.
Here's some questions for you folks. Why run? Whats in it for you? Does running serve any useful purpose (does it have to), like connecting one with others, or is it just for you?
DGC's (running equals sanity) last post got me thinking a bit and I thought I'd throw out a question or two.
Yesterday I worked out at the Y, lifting for 30 minutes, then spinning for an hour. When I got home, I ran with BW (Beautiful Wife) while she did her 2x2's for 2.5 miles. GO DIANNE!
Time to go to work. I'm off! (you probably guessed that)

2006-04-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

On the left, daughter in law with grand daughter Jacq. In the middle is stepson Karl. This is the stepson who ran the White Rock Half with me last November ( well, we started at the same time). His longest run of 2005 was one 10 miler. His time at White Rock: 1:31. Next to him, Dianne (massage women running?) and on the right is my oldest grandson Carson. In the mirror above them are Carson's mom and dad, Brita and Carter. Notice the candy dish in the forground.

Hope everyone had a peaceful and enjoyable day.

No running today. This is usually our long run day but I bailed on Susan at the 11 hour. I"m not happy about that but sure did like the extra sleep.

Saturday workout

2006-04-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

Not a very imaginative title today, just the facts. The last title was the title of a song by The Guess Who I had stuck in my head when I posted last. That title was going along with the way I felt at the time which was: I would like to blog a bit, but lately it's been to late or there are other things that have to be done first. Doooh, no time left...I'll get that song stuck in my head again. What song has been stuck in your head today?
This afternoon Dianne and I treadmilled at the Y. I ran support on the treadmill beside her while she did 2x2's for 3.5 miles and walked for another .5. I ran 4 miles in 40 minutes, nice and steady. I wish that described my character as well.
Rumor has it that there may be a Garmin in my future. My Birthday is in June and Dianne thinks I may need one. If it would only move my legs.
It's currently 88 degrees outside the back door here at Casa Maasa. So much for cool Spring weather. Tomorrow is Resurection Sunday. Have a great day!

No Time Left For You

2006-04-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure where the time goes, but I don't seem to have much of it to use for blogging lately. I haven't even been dropping in to read up on any of you.
Dianne has started on a schedule of running given to her by our excellent trainer Marathena and, in her usual style, has run a couple of days more than the schedule said to run. Go Dianne!
More to come later my friends.

Pudding, Rice, Everything Nice

2006-04-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

This, fellow bloggers, is home made chocolate pudding. I won't bore you with the receipe details now, we can talk about that later. Notice the little come hither beads of condensation of the top, sitting there so perfectly on the only hours old skin. Ooohh friends, it was good, very good. Desert First! Yes! Then, after...see how much you want of something, anything, else.

Which takes us to the rice, or from the sublime to the bizarre. Tasty, but...well here it is and I like it; see for yourself.

This is brown rice nuked with 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce(in the pic is Braggs liquid aminos which work as a great substitute for soy sauce). Once heated add about 3-4 tablespoons of plain yogurt, one tablespoon of peanut butter, a dash or three of hot sauce and mix it up. It's greatness, trust me.

OK. On to running. Yesterday Beautiful Wife and I ran on treadmills at the Y. She, intervals of walking 2-3 minutes, then running five minutes. She repeated this untill she had done 4 miles then went to PiYo.

I ran 4 miles, 2 at 10:30 pace, 2 at 9:30 pace after which I went home, did abs and back stuff and went to work. Todays run with Susan was so fine. 10 miles run pretty slow; we finished in 1 hr. 51 minutes. Yak, Yak, Yak. It was a great run and a nice visit. LSD=long slow discussion :)

At present I don't have any plans for another half. I will run on, possibly the White Rock Half, and actually train for it. That 2:10 half...I know I can do it.

Adios!

Beautiful Wife Runs!

2006-04-04T05:27:00.000-07:00

Mis amigos, a great day has dawned at Massoworld. Beautiful Wife has started running! Today we ran for 30 minutes in our neighborhood doing 2x2's; total distance 2.28 miles according to gmap. We (mostly I at this point) hope this becomes a regular habit/addiction for her. Maybe she'll get her own blog?
Recovery from the Big D (the race) has been a non issue. No soreness, no stiffness, just a little tweaky thing (very techincal jargon) in the left knee every once in a while, which some kryotherapy will dispatch post haste.
Adios!

Run in the Sun

2006-04-02T16:37:00.001-07:00

It was a beautiful hot spring day in old East Dallas, the site of the Big D Half. There was a rumor cirulated by the national weather service that it would be cloudy, in the 50's, with possibilty of rain being pretty good "We really need some rain and there's a good chance we'll get some by Sunday...lalala". Right.
Here are the good things about today's race. Both my client and new running buddy Rattlesnake Gilespe and I finshed the race and did it running (mostly). The course went through some very beautiful, picturesque neighborhoods in Dallas, as well as Deep Ellum, which is an old warehouse district rife with cool eateries and bars and it looked like being in a bar during the day when the neon lights are on.
Here are the things about today's race that should have been, i wish were, different. Parking was poorly planned. Traffic was backed up for two miles because the traffic light allowing one to turn left into the parking lot at the race would only let 4 cars through at a time. One more cop at that intersection would have gotten us in 20min faster. As it was, we walked up to the start at 7:57 or so, with the race starting at 8:00. We'll leave more time next time, eh?
The parking lots were many and could easily accomodate all the vehicles as the race took place at the Dallas County fair grounds, but they did not use all of them. Why? I guess they didn't think they wold have the turn out they did? Ask the cop who should have been directing the traffic into the parking lot? I dunno...
There were water stops every two miles. No water stop at mile one. The first one, at mile two, only had Poweraid, no water.
My time, a reverse PR, was 2:28. The first 5 miles were fine after which we started to crater. By mile 7 we were running 5 and 2's and at mile 8-9 we were running 2 and 2's. It was hot with no cloud cover and lots of reflected heat from the pavement. I felt like I was in shape for the race, it was just a tough day. There were a couple of really great, long hills that would have been awesome, so satisfying, to run and and then just keep going, get my breath and run on in. All the other above mentioned issues were unchangable and there is nothing to be done about any of it in the end but just go run. I would like to have done better, faster, but that is for another day.
I think Susan had a good run. I have not checked the winning marathon and half times for the day, but I suspect they are slow.
Blog on friends. I'll post a picture of Rattlesnake (Hal) and me soon.

Run in the Sun

2006-04-02T16:37:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful hot spring day in old East Dallas, the site of the Big D Half. There was a rumor cirulated by the national weather service that it would be cloudy, in the 50's, with possibilty of rain being pretty good "We really need some rain and there's a good chance we'll get some by Sunday...lalala". Right.
Here are the good things about today's race. Both my client and new running buddy Rattlesnake Gilespe and I finshed the race and did it running (mostly). The course went through some very beautiful, picturesque neighborhoods in Dallas, as well as the Deep Ellum, which is an old warehouse district rife with cool eateries and bars and it looks like being in a bar during the day when the neon lights are on.
Here are the things about today's race that should have been, i wish were, different. Parking was poorly planned. Traffic was backed up for two miles because the traffic light allowing one to turn left into the parking lot at the race would only let 4 cars through at a time. One more cop at that intersection would have gotten us in 20min faster. As it was, we walked up to the start at 7:57 or so, with the race starting at 8:00. We'll leave more time next time, eh?
The parking lots were many and could easily accomodate all the vehicles as the race took place at the Dallas County fair grounds, but they did not use all of them. Why? I guess they didn't think they wold have the turn out they did? Ask the cop who should have been directing the traffic into the parking lot? I dunno...
There were water stops every two miles. No water stop at mile one. The first one, at mile two, only had Poweraid, no water.
My time, a reverse PR, was 2:28. The first 5 miles were fine after which we started to crater. By mile 7 we were running 5 and 2's and at mile 8-9 we were running 2 and 2's. It was hot with no cloud cover and lots of reflected heat from the pavement. I felt like I was in shape for the race, it was just a tough day. There were a couple of really great, long hills that would have been awesome, so satisfying, to run and and then just keep going, get my breath and run on in. All the other above mentioned issues were unchangable and there is nothing to be done about any of it in the end but just go run. I would like to have done better, faster, but that is for another day.
I think Susan had a good run. I have not check the winning marathon and half times for the day, but I suspect they are slow.
Blog on friends. I'll post a picture of Rattlesnake (Hal) and me soon.

A note

2006-03-31T18:09:00.000-08:00

This is not a post because I'm still too busy to do that...OK, it's a post. I'm running the bigD half on Sunday providing I don't actually get sick. Right now I'm almost sick and still should be able to work on people and run a half marathon.
I went to see the grandboys last weekend and both of them were coughing, hacking and snotting and they were almost as glad to see me as I was to see them.

Here are some proverbs from a dude named Sparrow I read in the latest Utne reader. They're kind of a hippie, Ashley Brilliant sort of thing.

At night milk is black.
Volcanoes are safe most days.
A bomb can't destroy dust.
A parasite never changes its mind.
Don't applaud a house of cards.
One noodle, long enough, is a meal.

Mill around smartly amigos, I'll be back in a while.

That's all folks

2006-03-10T04:34:00.000-08:00

I'm getting to busy to blog. Thanks for all the great comments and to all of you who stop by to just read. Happy Running!

Wednesday Run

2006-03-08T05:54:00.000-08:00

Windy...dark, overcast. Low clouds flee the South as bare armed trees move in an erie, slow, arhythmic dance. Shapes move quickly, scurrying from under the orange street lights back into the dark. Just another morning run on our favorite route. Five miles today in 48:56. My tired legs did better after mile two and a 90 second walk. The last mile time was 9:33. Massoman out!

Happy Tuesday!

2006-03-07T06:23:00.000-08:00

Today's run was fine, 5 miles in 47:31:35. My legs were a bit tired but it felt good to feel 'em pushing me along. Yesterday was my Monday ususal; lift with Karrie at 5:00, run ( 5 miles), then yoga class at the Y with Beautiful Wife. Yesterday's treat: a big ole cigar, an Ashton, smoked while leisurely doing chores in the backyard. See the pool sweep ( puff). See the pool sweep go to the right, (puff puff), now it goes back , (puff puff). What a tough life.

Today a local restaurant, Fish City, is donating a % of the daily profits to the Y for fund raising and it happens to be one of our favorite places to eat lunch. Fish Tacos! Yay! Have a great day amigos!!!!

Saturday morning long run

2006-03-04T06:57:00.000-08:00

Today's long run was a treat. I ran with some friends from the Y who are members of a running club,the Lake Grapevine Runners and Walkers. The run is almost all on trails and park roads around the lake so traffic is hardly a concern and there are bathrooms . The club also puts water and Gatoraid out. The temp at 5:30 when we started was in the middle 50's with a light breeze. My time for 13 miles was 2hrs 9min with water stops and a pit stop thrown in. First mile time was 9:45, last mile 9:39.
There were three of us for the first 6 miles, Rick, Jack, and of course, yours truely. Then another runner came by from the group and Jack ran off with her. Rick, who is faster than I am, stayed with me to make sure I didn't get lost and to hold the pace for the last four miles (ooof), something I was very grateful for. The membership dues for the club are $20 a year. Cheap huh? I'm going to join. Almost everybody there is faster than I am, which is a good thing, and it isn't to far from my house, about a 20-25 minute drive each way. I used to think that driving that far to get out of the car and run was silly until a couple of near misses with cars on the roads around my house changed my mind.

About the Gig

The gig was fun! It was way past my usual bed time when we finished, but I drank lots of coffee before so I wasn't sleepy until the drive home. The place we played, Arthur's, is a swanky, posh place. My friends play there for two weeks, then go up the street about a mile to another place very much like Arthur's and play two weeks and go back and forth. It's their real job. They have hundreds of songs on the song list so I played songs like "What have you done for me lately" then a blues standard like "Linda Lou" then "La Bamba" then something slow. I got to play lots of songs I have heard before, but not had the chance to play. The drummer whos drums I played on is about a foot shorter than I am, so my knees where about 4-5 inches above the snare drum on each side, but it wasn't a problem and the drums sounded good. It was great!
However, a bar is a bar is a bar. This one has mostly 60ish year old men with money dancing and drinking with 40ish year old women. God bless them :). The band made $200 in tips for playing La Bamba four times in an hour. At one point, twice in a row. OK, I'm a musical slut, but maybe the guy who requested it did get lucky and I'll have some new running shoes. Enough about that bar stuff. I had fun playing and I'll do it for two Thursdays a month until it isn't fun.
Have fun amigos!

Thusday Run

2006-03-02T05:07:00.000-08:00

58:08:58 for six miles. Lots of runners out the last two mornings because of the nice weather. It was 64 degrees at 4:45 at my house.
I 'm going to play a gig tonight with some old friends. I have'nt played in a bar in a couple of years which is only a problem because now the start time of the gig, 8:30, is really close to my bed time which is between 9:00 and 10:00. I think it will be fun. My friends, a husband and wife, play in a restaurant /bar whose crowd averages in age from 40 up. Their band consists of them both singing, him playing sax and the computer/sequencer playing all the music, including the drum parts that I will play along with. Can you say lounge lizard? Sure you can. At least I don't have to wear a tux, or even a jacket, and playing along with a computer is fun. Oh, and the drums are there already, too. They belong to their regular drummer, who only wants to play on Friday and Saturday night. The place is called Arthur's and it's on Quorum Dr. in Addison. I'll see you all there. We won't play "Girl from Ipanima" ( i know i butchered the spelling on that) untill you're all there.
Adios!

Wednesday Run

2006-03-01T05:04:00.000-08:00

What a great day to run...60 degrees at the back door this morning...shorts and long sleeves at last. Marathena couldn't make it this morning so I ran by myself on the usual route. Today's run: seven miles today in 65:09 with a shooting star at mile 4, then over to the Y for lunges and jackknifes on the ball. Yay me! I wish the next half I run would start at 5:00am and would be on my usual route. I have not regestered for the Big D half as yet. I apologize for the short post, but it's time to go! Blog on amigos!

Ahhh Monday is a Great Day

2006-02-27T19:11:00.000-08:00

Ha! I'm off on Monday, every Monday, and you're not!
I think the problem with my legs getting heavy B/T mile 5 and 6 at Cowtown was a nutrition/fuel problem. I should have eaten something on the way over to Fort Worth like a banana or an apple, some toast, green drink, some kind of fuel. I'll remember next time.
Today's run was 3-4 miles on some trails through Flower Mound behind the Y. Time running was 33 min or so. Also lifted with Marathena at 5:00 and went to yoga with Beautiful Wife at 10:30.

We are almost done remodeling our office. Today we were there all afternoon setting up our massage rooms and trying to figure out where to put everything as we see clients tomorrow. We moved from a 1440 square foot space to a 720 square foot space. It's going to be fine...it'll take about one more week of working out the details. It's amazing how much junk/crap/stuff/ we had accumulated. Adios!

Cowtown; a more complete story

2006-02-25T16:44:00.000-08:00

When I arrived in downtown Fort Worth this morning there was light rain with a temp in the low 40s and a light wind from the North. Great running weather!!! I had never run in the rain before (I liked it!) and after some advise from a panel of running gear experts decided to start the race with a trash bag (bin liner) top layer as a way of staying warm and dry at the start. The rain stopped but for a drizzle at the start as we ran North out of down town and I left the bin liner at mile two. Cowtown has a reputaion of not being well organized and not having enough water stops or porta pots but today there was a water station at every mile and someone at every mile marker annoucing times except at mile six.

I have lived in various parts of Fort Worth and am familiar with most of the neighborhoods and running there was very enjoyable. I didn't realize when I lived there how rolling and hilly Fort Worth is. No runner eating monsters on the course today, just lots of rolling, gradual climbs without much of the down hill from mile 5 until after mile 11 going back into down town.
My legs started to feel heavy around mile 6. I wanted to put new ones on at mile 11. More long runs will fix that before the Big D half at the first of April. My longest run before this race was only 11.3 and I only did it once, so todays race will serve as a training run, too. (Are they all training runs?) My right achilles tendon didn't give any trouble today and other than just needing to be better prepared, it was a good race for me. Hopefully some of my running mates will be at the Big D Half.

Here are my splits.
Mile 1 10:34
Mile 2 9:47
Mile 3 10:13
Mile 4 9:31
Mile 5 10:24
Mile 6 10:19
Mile 7 10:49
Mile 8 10:53
Mile 9 10;52
Mile10 10:55
Mile11 11:02
Mile 12 I forgot to hit my watch right at the mile marker...13:34
Mile13 9:54
Finish 2:21:19

My Friends, I am humbled by the runners I read about and comment to here in blogland. Not just those of you who run 100 MPW and run 3 hour marathons, but all you who have to run and then blog about it. It strikes me as a bit odd and I feel right at home here.
Blog on amigos!

Cowtown!

2006-02-25T09:06:00.000-08:00

It's over and another run is in the books. My time: 2:21:53, that's a 10:46 pace which is an improvment over the the half I ran in November. More details, splits etc., to follow.

Advice Please

2006-02-24T06:41:00.000-08:00

Okay blogmates, tomorrow is the Cowtown Half and the forcast is calling for a good possibility of rain with temps in the upper 40's around race time. I am determined to run but want advice on gear. What to wear in the event of rain? Garbage bag? Rain proof ultra lite wind proof hooded jacket? What? Come on now you winter rainy runners.

The end of an Era

2006-02-22T06:58:00.000-08:00

Today at 8:45am the "upstairs people" drove out of the driveway and off to new jobs, friends, lives. The sad part is they took the grandsons with them. I kidded before about them going but leaving the boys, but I would'nt want that full time responsibility again for love or money. While it lasted, Beautiful Wife and I had struck the grandparent jackpot, seeing the boys when ever we wanted and giving them back whenever we got tired of them. We were a part of their births, firsts steps, first words and innumerable ordinary, yet amazing, things. It has been an incredible gift.

As far as running goes, 6 miles today in... well, my watch says 56:49 but that's not the whole truth and nothing but...I ran with Marathena this morning and just after mile one we walked for a minute so she could shed her jacket and I paused my watch. I paused it again at the turn around too. Altho I could/would have run todays route non stop, I didn't. Adding 60 to 90 seconds to my time today is probably closer to right.
Susan, we miss you. Come run when you can.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear

2006-02-21T19:13:00.000-08:00

I said in yesterday's post that my wife walked 2 miles on the treadmill in 16 minutes and that was an error. That would be faster than my friends and I run. It also in no way reflects how well I listen to my wife or my ablity to proof read. I think she said 26 minutes...

Yoga, it's good for Us

2006-02-20T14:21:00.000-08:00

Ran 3 miles on the treadmill at the Y today while Beautiful Wife walked on the one next to me. She did 2 miles in 16 minutes, I did my 3 in 27:55. Mile one at 10ish pace, mile two at 9:30ish, mile 3 at 9:ish. Yay Us! Then on to yoga, which today was sooo good. I have not been to the usual Monday yoga class and the thing I miss the most is the "Yoga Buzz". After a yoga class I have a feeling that is a combination of the way I feel after a long run combined with valium. After a long run there's that great feeling of accomplishment and those juicy neurochemicals, but also the fatigue, sorenes and stiffness. Not so with the yoga buzz. There's a unique feeling of having worked my muscles hard but without the tension and fatigue of other styles of workout. On top of that, there's the ever important juicy neurochemicals and the feeling of accomplishment. I also find yoga being good for my hands by opening my hands out and stretching out my fingers. OK, so much for that. Blog on amigos!

Up and Down

2006-02-19T15:14:00.000-08:00

Meet Briguy
This is Up. Here's down. He can also speak. What does he say? No.
Let the games begin.
In other really unimportant news, I went to the Y and lifted while Beautiful Wife went shopping. No running today. Now, it's nap time.
You guys are great.
Don't wait up.

The Cold Facts and Other Tales

2006-02-18T22:05:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends,
It's been quite a week around here where my little world never seems to spin too fast. Amazing feats occur at the speed of the U.S. Mail.

About three weeks ago we upgraded the web site for the office so our customers, which hopefully include some of you fine folks, can buy gift certificates on our web site , then print them. To kick off this convenient and brilliant feature, we had a sale on one hour gift certificates for Valentines Day and discounted them far enough as to cause constant wailing and gnashing of teeth (Hmmm...Gnashing of Teeth would be a good name for a band, so would Casting Aspersions) among the two RMT's who work with us at our massage wonderland. I didn't call a meeting or give them any advance warning about this brilliant idea of mine, they just experienced it in the moment when clients showed up with gift certificates for an hour that were just , like, way cheaper than the normal ones.

Next, we are remodeling the office, at last, after 10 years. Yes, yes, I know what that says about me. I can't find things anywhere, ever, because when I set something down it becomes part of the landscape. The color of the walls? The carpet? What?
We are doing the painting and window treatments oursevles and I like the color palatte that has been decided on. Not a lot of drastic change will take place, a massage room is a massage room, exept that we will use the 720 square feet of space we will be moving into much more efficently than the 1440 square feet we are currently occupying. Completion on this must be March 1 and we are on target.

Now the sad news. My grandsons Curlyboy, age 4, and his little brother Briguy, age 16 months, are moving to Missouri on February 22. I have had the great fortune to have my oldest stepson and his family live in the second floor of my house. My house has a three bedroom house upstairs complete with private entrance, full kitchen, two full baths and two living areas. These guys have lived up there since before they had kids. Career oportunities dictate this move and I'm so glad for them. When I first heard they would be moving, I asked how often they would be visiting the boys. Curlyboy comes downstairs quite often to cook breakfast for us (toast) and to read the Anatomical Chart Company catalog with me. Here's a snipet of dialog. "Hey, that's a picture of an ear." "No, it's a kidney" "Kidney? Where is that in me?" "In your back right here (poke, poke), but on the inside." I think it's precious and he will will become the next Einstein, but I won't bore you. I'll sure miss those little guys.

In other cold facts, Cowtown is next Saturday morning. I'm creeping up on a two hour half. I plan to run another one, the BigD half, in April. Hopefully, a client of mine will run that one with me. He is an experienced runner who can pace us well and perhaps, run us to a two hour half.

This evenings run was 11.3 miles in 1 hour 55 minutes 12 seconds. The temp. was in the middle 20's with a 10 to 12 mile an hour wind blowing from the North. I was dressed pretty well and was only really uncomfortable on the last part of the run that turned onto a street that had no shelter or buildings to block the wind. I have a new appreciation for the term "convience store" as I was desperate about mile eight. Yay for indoor plumbing!

Thursdays Run

2006-02-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

Windy, windy, windy! The temp however, was a balmy 64 dgrees out side the back door at 4:45 this morning. High today expected to be 80 with a low tonight of 32. High over the weekend not expected to get above 40-45 with some rain and slush. Lets all go run!
Met Marathena for what turned out to be an easy five mile run on the usual course. Both of us were a little tired today. My time was 49:24. Another run is done!

Wednesday Run and Lift

2006-02-15T06:52:00.000-08:00

To catch up a bit, Marathena and I lifted on Monday morning, which was good and strong. It feels good to get back in the gym. Tuesday the three of us ran together and Great Freakin' Horny Toads!, it was windy! Susan's leg disappeared (one is tempted to say she has a ghost injury, but that wouldn't be funny really) so she turned around about a half mile out. Marathena and I pushed on to the turn around for five miles, she turned and I kept going and ran seven at 68:08. I've never run into a wind that was that strong before. It really adds a whole new dimension to a run, no? Not a very pleasant dimension, but, that run is done.
Today Marathena and I ran an easy three miles, windy again, and went to lift. Time for three miles was 27:27 with the pace feeling pretty comfortable.
Gotta go! There is a lot to do at work today.