It's over, man. Let her go.

Riverside Run

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Location:

Bliss,ID,USA

Member Since:

Jan 04, 2010

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Recover From Injury

Running Accomplishments:

In late 2008 I decided I needed to get in better shape and started running again.  I ran my first formal road race ever, a half marathon, in late 2009.

(unofficial) Track 1 Mile - 7:32 (4/24/2010)  6:56 (9/27/2010)

5k - 27:31 - Riverview Run on 06/11/2010
22:39 - Gatorade Steelers 5k on 09/04/2010

10k - 50:43 - Riverside Run on 04/10/2010

Half - 2:02:58 - Just a Short Run on 03/27/2010
1:51:47 - IKEA Montour Trail Half on 09/11/2010

Short-Term Running Goals:

2011 Races:

Sept 25 - The Great Race 10k (59:15)
Nov 5 - Dirt Monster 5mi (52:59)

2012 Races:

June 8 - Riverside 5k  (27:49)
Sept 2 - Gatorade Steelers 5k (route) with Steve!  (27:39)
Sept 30 - The Great Race 10k (route)  (53:48)
Nov 3 - The Dirt Monster 5mi (52:55)

2013 Races:

May - Pittsburgh Marathon (started, but DNF about the half way point)
June - Riverview 5k  - Bummed I missed signing up for this one. It's one of my favorites!
Sept - Gatorade/Steelers 5k. (Signed up!)
Sept - IKEA Montour Trail Half  (prob not, but leaving it on here)
Sept - The Great Race 10k (My Running 101 goal race)
Nov - Dirt Monster 5mi (Gotta do it again no matter what!)

Long-Term Running Goals:

Finish recovering from my injuries and build mileage.  That is all.

Personal:

My name is Wes, I'm married with two wonderful children. The nickname BaldNSpicy came from the fact that I have been balding for a (long) while now and spicy for my love of very spicy foods (Thai and extremely hot wings are my favorites).  If eating doesn't bring me near tears and leave me sweating, it's not worth eating.  :-)

Oh, and I'm also known for my doorags.

Favorite Quotes:

"Running without hills is like motorcycling without corners." - rAtTLeTrAp

"Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit.  You are what you do repeatedly." - Shaquille O'Neal

"A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else."  - John Burroughs

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
NB 758s #2 Lifetime Miles: 596.90
Brooks Cascadia 7 Lifetime Miles: 165.17
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
14.1510.6524.80
NB 758s #2 Miles: 18.78NB 758s #1 Miles: 6.02
Weight: 166.83
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
0.000.000.00

Happy Easter, all!  Weak week last week...this week will be non-weak.

Weight: 0.00
Comments(5)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
3.101.254.35

First day back after being down sick for a couple of days.  I'm still not 100%, but getting there.  I'm still stuffy, a tickle in the throat and fatigue, but I had to get out today.  Beautiful day.  I decided to hit the track since I wanted to see how the Garmin did on tracking distance and pace on an oval track.  Plus, I figured if I started to feel bad I could always pack it in and not be worried about being miles from home.

I started out running 1.75mi at about a 9:15 pace to warm up.  Nice and easy, nothing too "fast."  Then I got this crazy idea to see if I could beat my current track mile PR.  Well, I did it, thanks to the Garmin and the immediate feedback on what my mile pace was.  :-)  I ran it in 7:54 which is pretty darn good for me.  I took it easy for a few laps then decided to see if I could run a 400 in sub-7:00 pace.  I did that as well, just squeaking by at 1:44.95.  Jogged another mile or so and called it a day.  Track was busy and I was getting tired of weaving in and out of walkers.

Tomorrow, I'm shooting for a 7-8 miler, fairly slow.

NB 758s #2 Miles: 4.35
Weight: 168.00
Comments(5)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.020.006.02

No pain, no gain!  Right???

This run was tough.  Not sure if it was the heat wave we've been having, the late dinner, or the fact I was exhausted and could have gone to bed at 10:30pm.  Instead, I decided I needed to get my run in, so I went.  Did my 6mi out and back.

Splits:  9:10, 9:00, 8:42, 10:21, 10:03, 10:32

I really need to run earlier so I don't have to stay up another hour or so before I can fall asleep.

NB 758s #1 Miles: 6.02
Weight: 168.00
Comments(5)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
0.000.000.00

Big fat 0 today, but I've convinced myself it's OK.  Just finished with work and it's past 12am, so that would mean any miles run now would count toward the next day.  I'll get in a few around 5:30am when I drop my daughter off for seminary since I've got another super long day of work ahead of me tomorrow.  Sigh...

Weight: 166.00
Add Comment
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.030.004.03

I decided to try what Rattletrap does and run super early in the morning.  So I ran at 6:30am :-p

My plan has always been to run before work after seminary and the kids are out of school, but today worked out OK.  I only get a max of about 60 mins though, so if I need to run longer than about 6 miles for my daily run, I'll have to do it during the day or at night.  Once school's out, I'll run in the morning then bike to work and back.  That should give me enough exercise for the day and won't impact my work schedule.  At least that's the plan, but I'm flexible.  :-)

Splits:  10:06, 8:30, 9:50, 8:56

I took it pretty slow because I was sluggish.  I don't know what my problem is for the last few days I've felt like this.  Running more than 4 miles or so seems to kill me.  Maybe it's the music on the iPod?  Today, my "Bring it home, mama!" song was Rubberband Man by the Spinners:


It helped, but I think I would have been faster if I had sequins on my doorag and had a rubberband at the end to close the run properly. I didn't have a running group to help me with the choreography either...darn, so many things missing from this run!

NB 758s #2 Miles: 4.03
Weight: 166.00
Comments(4)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
0.003.203.20

I only had an hour during lunch today, and it's freakin' cold with a 20-25mph wind, so I hit the treadmill.  I warmed up for a couple of minutes then I ran a mile at 8:34, the next mile at 8:13, then for the next 0.5mi I did 7:47 and the last 0.5mi at 7:30 - all at 2% incline.  Then a cool down, a good stretch and back to the desk.

I had just planned on running a slow 3 since I'm doing the 10k race tomorrow, but once I got going, I wanted to get my body used to running "fast."  I felt good, but I've been exhausted all week so I don't know how I'll really do tomorrow, but it will be a PR no matter what. :-)

NB 758s #2 Miles: 3.20
Weight: 167.00
Comments(5)
Race: Riverside Run (6.2 Miles) 00:50:43, Place overall: 56, Place in age division: 4
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
1.006.207.20

I decided a couple of days ago to run this 10k.  The weather was looking nice and two of my buddies were running in it so they convinced me to do it.  I figured I would do it and finally set my 10k PR.  I finished, therefore, I set a PR!  Woo hoo!  LOL  The race is somewhat small (only 203 10k runners, hence my 4th place AG finish, and had I run the 5k instead, I would have won my AG with my 3.1mi split - yeah, it was small) but it was a lot of fun.  My daughter decided she wanted to come with me and I welcomed that since then she could tote my bag and take pictures, etc.  I had to register before the race since online registration closed last week.  They gave me my timing chip, then pointed me to a line where they were handing out the t-shirts.  We stood in line for a couple of minutes.  While in line, my daughter said "I wonder if they'll give me one."  I said, "Hey, if they offer you one, take it."  They asked for her size, so she got a shirt too.  Needless to say, she was excited she came.

The race starts right in front of Heinz Field, where our beloved Steelers play, along the riverside trail, out to the 31st Street bridge, around the little island and back to the stadium via the trail.  I know Twinkies was getting excited when I mentioned trail, but it's mostly paved with some hard packed areas so not really trail, trail.

I met up with my buddy from work at the starting line since I knew he'd be at the front (he took 6th - 34:25).  I very briefly met his All-American friend that he ran with at college - he took first, I think, with a 30:29 (4:55 pace!).  This is the same guy that won the Half I ran last month with a 1:07:xx, setting a new course record.  Unbelievably fast...  

After checking out the starting line and what it looked like from up there, I took my spot about 1/3 of the way back.  The trail isn't super narrow at the start, but there were enough people that I was having to weave in and out and got stuck behind people for about 1/4-1/2 of a mile before things started to loosen up.  I looked at the Garmin at one point during that time and saw a 10:20 pace!  CRAP!  I was getting really antsy, and I could have started out farther up front, but I was worried I'd be one of those people who thought they were faster than they really were and I didn't need people cursing at me as they fought to get around me.

After getting out of the crowd and I could better pick my pace, I settled into a "fast" pace that I knew was faster than I could probably sustain the whole race, but what the heck, why not go for it.  The first mile, I wasn't passed by anyone, but passed plenty.  The next 4 miles, I got passed by 4 dudes and 2 chicks.  I caught one dude and one chick by the end.

Paces:  8:11, 7:45, 8:06, 8:27, 8:25, 8:16, (.2) 7:34

I had thought that sub 50:00 was going to be tough, but possible.  I fell apart a little there around mile 4 & 5 and lost a little focus which hurt me a little.  The first mile was a little more tiring than it probably should have been fighting to get out of the crowds, but it did save me from going out way too fast.  I'll have to check the Garmin once I plug it in and see what my pace was between the first 1/2 mile and the second 1/2 mile.  I'm guessing I was close to a 7:30 the second half, maybe faster as I tried to make up for lost time.  I was happy with my splits.  I ran well, enjoyed the race, and even left myself a little room for another PR in a couple of months.  :-)  The race was well organized, the food at the end was pretty good, and best of all, it supported a good cause (the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Adoption Services).  Plus, my daughter got a shirt!  What more could I/we have asked for?

Just a bit of commentary:  My buddy is one of the nicest guys I've ever met.  He's freakin' fast but is incredibly humble, and you'd never know he was an elite runner from the way he acts and carries himself.  He's a member of the elite running team here in Pittsburgh, but yet he's always willing to go on runs with me, give me pointers, he designed a marathon training program that he teaches for our employees through our company's fitness center (for everyone from first timers to experienced marathoners), and is always very positive and encouraging.  The guy is 25 and doesn't mind helping out a 39 year-old wanna be speedster. 

On the flip side, and maybe it was just because the other guy didn't know me, his buddy that won looked me up and down and then just took off on a quick little warm up jog.  I hope I didn't embarrass my buddy by coming up to him, but I knew he probably wouldn't stick around by the time I got in and as small as the race was, I didn't see him before then.  I missed seeing him at the Half so I figured I'd at least say hello this time. 

I know people come in all shapes, sizes, and personalities, but I hope that when I'm winning my AG and qualifying for Boston that I'll be half as humble and helpful to others as he is to me.  Something to think about...

NB 758s #2 Miles: 7.20
Weight: 166.00
Comments(16)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
14.1510.6524.80
NB 758s #2 Miles: 18.78NB 758s #1 Miles: 6.02
Weight: 166.83
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