Go, you chicken fat, go away!

Day 9 P90X - Plyofreakinmetrics

I think I've discovered the source of my back discomfort.

3 easy miles practicing my poise and posture after last night's plyometrics.  I'm starting to fall in love again with my legs.

Time - 26:09 (avg. pace 8:43)

Splits - 8:47, 8:47, 8:35

I forgot to mention I almost got hit by a car today.  Maybe a poor choice to wear an all gray outfit at dawn on a cloudy day.

I fell asleep last night because I was trying to watch the Suns game while at the same time finish watching the movie Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.  I thought it would be a better movie than it was, but the storyline was weak.  Kristin Kreuk is the hottest hotty in Hollywood, so at least it had that going for it.  Anyway, I didn't do P90X last night.  This morning I was still sore so I just rode the stationary bike for 15 minutes.  I'll have to get my run in tonight as well as my P90X workout.  I think it's Yoga X.

Today's Emily's third birthday.  I'm glad she's feeling better.  I don't think she has a clue about what a birthday is, but she does like to open presents.  Here's some pictures we took of her a couple of weeks ago when she was helping us cook.

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PM Workout

3 easy easy miles.  I wasn't wearing my Garmin.  I just wanted to loosen up because I thought I had to do Yoga X.  It turns out it was Arms and Shoulders/Ab Ripper X.  I'm kind of glad I didn't have to do Yoga.  I feel great now.

More pictures of flatlander and me from last Saturday's race.

South Mountain!  I met up with two other guys from my Ragnar team.  Eddie brought his dog and went at his own pace.  Glen and I pushed it a little.  Okay, a lot. The first 1.25 miles is not bad.  It's on a dirt road up to the trail head.  Then we hit the trails and it becomes a lot steeper.  We followed Mormon Trail until it looped around to National Trail.  We were going to just follow National Trail back to where we came from, but Glen asked if we should go a little farther.  I said, "Let's go another mile."  We ran another 0.85 miles and he asked how much longer.  I told him 0.15 miles.  So we were off again, but Glen kept going.  And going.  And going.  After a while he decided that was far enough, but then I spotted another parking lot that I've heard my friend Ox talk about.  I said let's go to that parking lot since we've come this far already.  That was five miles and a climb of 968 feet.  The view of Phoenix was awesome.  We headed back leapfrogging the mountain bikers.  This time we followed National Trail all the way back.  (You know how I feel about Mormons.)  I did step and bend my ankle more than it wanted to bend once.  It's a bit tender now, but I think it will be fine.  When we got back to the dirt road we started to cruise.  Then we saw Eddie.  I was surprised he was still around.  We slowed down and all ran to our cars together.  Then we talked Ragnar and if we should stay the night in Prescott the night before.  Fun run.

My kids love roller coasters.

I emailed RUN2DAY to see if he wanted to come running with me this morning.  I never got a response back.  Then this girl that I used to teach Sunday School to said she wants to start training for a marathon.  I told her to come meet me at 6am to go for a run, but I knew she wouldn't.  Then I realized I had told RUN2DAY the same time.  I thought I might have to pull a Peter Brady on them.  But neither one showed, so I went with Ginger.  She's been sleeping inside lately and hasn't left any little "gifts."  I gave her a moment outside by herself so she could rid herself of any nocturnal build-up.  Our splits were pretty even.  In that last mile she started to slow down.  I hoped I wasn't pushing it too hard for her because who knows when the last time she got a drink was.  Then she started to speed up.  Then instead of doing the one foot after the other trot, she started doing the front legs/back legs together thing.  It was weird.  I realized she had to poop.  Luckily we were next to the golf course, so I took her up on the green because I hate golf.  Just kidding, it was in the landscaping.  Sorry Kim.  I left it there for the golfers.

After I did my three mile loop I went back out to make sure my boy got to the bus stop.

Time - 26:03 (avg. pace 8:43)

Splits - 8:43, 8:41, 8:45

Then 8:08 pace for last 0.7.

The other day ChrisM was bragging on how skinny his wrists were, but have you ever seen his legs?  They're monstrous.  That's what the M stands for.

Today was an eventful day, albeit no running.  It's Katelynn's birthday.  Talk about milking it for all it's worth.  From opening presents to blowing out candles, to special privileges, she makes sure to get the most out of special day.

 It was also Emily's first day of preschool.  Such a big girl.

I felt really good this morning.  I was worried about my knee which has been bothering me when I walk down the stairs lately.  I'm pretty sure it's because my hamstring or IT band feels like a guitar string wound too tight.  I've been stretching it out.  No problems today though.  Kept a good pace.

Time - 44:31 (avg. pace 7:56)

Splits - 8:02, 7:52, 7:50, 8:06, 7:55, 4:48 (7:47 pace for 0.61)

What is up with this cold weather?  When it's 7:30am and the sun is up and I'm in Arizona and I can see my breath (is this a run-on sentence?), it just ain't right.  Nonetheless, I was stilll wearing my muscle man tank top, as opposed to my spaghetti strap.  Again, I felt good.  I wasn't trying to get out of my comfort zone, but I was pushing it.  I was trying to stay nice and steady so I wouldn't strain anything.  Even still, it was a pretty good pace for me.  I must be getting faster.  Hey, this blog is working.

Time - 23:43 (avg. pace 7:55)

Splits - 8:03, 7:58, 7:44

My weekly mileage has been pathetic lately.  I blame lack of sugar.  I also blame general laziness.  I better take it up a notch this week.

Time - 47:39 (avg. 8:30)

Splits - 8:36, 8:30, 8:25, 8:32, 8:27, 5:10 for 0.60 (8:34 pace)

I saw MichelleL the other day.  She was sportin' spandex like there's no tomorrow.

Sunday was Valentine's Day.  Yesterday was President's Day.  Today is Slap a Bus Day.  If you see a bus, slap it.  I did.  I was trying to take it up a notch today.  When I got to the CircleK/Day Laborers' intersection, this school bus was in such a big hurry to make a right-hand turn before the light turned red that it almost hit me.  Being a man that honors his civic duties, I slapped the bus.  I hope the driver heard it, but I know the bus driver right behind him or her saw it.

Time - 43:07  (avg. pace 7:43)

Splits -

1 mile - 7:44 - I had restless night's sleep with a bit of a cough and a sore throat, but when I started running, I was feeling good.

2 mile - 6:54 - this one's for you, Brent.  0.7 miles into this one is where the bus incident occurred.  I was probably running an 8:30 pace up to then and then the adrenaline kicked in for the last 0.3, upping my average pace for the mile to 6:54.  (Let me do the math on that.  LOL! Yeah, 3:10 pace.  18.9 mph.  It could happen.)

3 mile - 7:53

4 mile - 7:09 - another sub 7:15 for Brent.

5 mile - 8:34 - cool down

last 0.59 - 4:53 (8:17 pace)  I stretched right afterwards, and I'm feeling, yep, you guessed it, great!

Here's a story about when I was young and I thought I was tough.  I did not qualify for state my senior year in high school because I had the fastest kids in the state in my division.  Anybody ever hear of the Martin twins from Page?  My high school coach used to tease me about my running form.  He called it my arm roll.  I guess I used to bring one of my arms down like I was playing the drums.  I probably still do it, but don't notice it.  Anyway, I entered a 5k that year that was held on the same day as the state meet.  I ended up taking 2nd place overall and first in my age division.  That's a pretty good story that I'll have to tell some day, too. 

The following year I was preparing to go on my mission, and I wanted to run that same race again.  I now had to train on my own.  As I was about 5 miles into my run one day, these punk 9th graders started making fun of my arm roll.  At first I let it go, but the one kid started to laugh like Nelson on the Simpsons.  So I turned around and confronted them.  There were three of them.  One was in his yard on the other side of a chain link fence.  One was on his bike wearing a hat.  And the other was standing there like Scut Farkus's little toadie, Grover Dill.  He had yellow eyes!  So help me, yellow eyes!

I asked Scut what that thing was he was doing with his arm. [Enter inappropriate comment for most age groups except for 9th graders.]  "No.  I wasn't doing that."  Then I knocked the hat off his head and over the fence.  "Well, I hope not" I said.  Side note: If you're ever going to get in a fight with someone younger than you, jump all his friends, too.  That way if you get beat up, you can say it took three of them to do it.  If you get your butt kicked by someone four years younger than you, you'll never live it down.  Back to the story.  I thought I made my point, so I was on my way again.  Then Grover did his Nelson laugh again.  "Let it go, Burt.  It's not worth it."  Not wanting to be the guy to get beat up by someone four years younger than him, I did let it go.  That turned out to be a great decision.  Not a minute later a sheriff's car came driving down the road.

The moral of the story is, when you're a 160 lb. bean pole trying to go out and serve the Lord, don't act like a hot shot.  You will get beat up and thrown in jail.

Why do my runs get shorter by one hundredth of a mile each day?  Probably because I ran into Bruce RUN2DAY.  I think he runs the same loop as I do, only backwards.  Well, he doesn't run backwards.  I mean in the opposite direction.  Anyway, he apologized profusely about not checking his email as diligently as he should be.  Then he told me about how he ran the worse marathon of his life on Sunday at the Lost Dutchman in 3:27.  (I didn't feel sorry for him.)  But we'll go out next week for sure.  He plans on being pretty competitive in the Ragnar Relay next weekend.

Time - 47:59 (avg. pace 8:36)  recovery run

Splits - 8:54, 8:20, 8:25, 8:40, 8:39, 5:00 for 0.58 (8:37 pace)

I think ChrisM's theory of universal expansion is correct.

Time -  44:01 (avg. pace 7:55)

Splits - 8:12, 6:50, 8:11, 7:10, 8:45, 4:54 for 0.57 (8:40 pace)

Two more miles under 7:15, Brent.  I deserve major commando points today since you dissed me the other day.

4.86?  That doesn't make any sense.  What about universal expansion?  WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!

Actually, I was running a couple of minutes behind this morning, so I cut out the loop around WalMart.  I guess I should call it my WalMart bypass bypass loop.  Instead I turned at the CircleK/Day laborer corner.  At least I wouldn't be hit by any bus today.

You know, I left a lot of details out of yesterday's run, so let me tell you about them today.  First, I saw Bruce RUN2DAY.  Then I said buenos dias to the day laborers in my best mexican accent.  I'm sure they thought I was a paisano...or a payaso.  And I stopped and talked to my son's bus driver.  I often seem him parked about a mile away from my house waiting until it's time for his route.  My son's gotten into some trouble at school, so I wanted to see how his behavior was on the bus.  This is significant because he talked to me again today.  He wanted to tell me that he had a talk with my son and that we're all here for him.  That bus driver is a nice chap.  I'm still trying to figure out if he's gay.

Time - 41:51 (avg. pace 8:37)

Splits - 8:46, 8:30, 8:47, 8:37, 7:12 for 0.86 (8:22 pace)

Nice and easy recovery run.  A lot less painful than yesterday.

These are the gingerbread houses my wife and her best friend made last year.  They are patterned after our own house near allie's sugarhouse loop.

Just Friday I was thinking about how silly it was that time I saw Bruce RUN2DAY running towards me and thought it was a dog.  So this morning I saw this coyote running running straight towards me from across the road.  But then it seemed to get bigger.  A big dog is coming right toward me.  Is it a wolf?  Fight or flight?  I stopped dead in my tracks, clinching my fists, getting ready to fight a dog when I saw that it was indeed RUN2DAY again.  I said, "That's the 2nd time you've done that to me!"  He had no idea what I was talking about.

Time - 1:27:16 (avg. pace 8:44)

Splits - 8:39, 8:39, 8:42, 8:43, 8:48, 8:49, 8:38, 8:45, 8:47, 8:49

Standard deviation - 4.3 seconds

Curse this vow to not have sugar for the month of February.  I had to put bananas on my pancakes last night instead of syrup.  Here are some of the goodies I had to pass up last week.

Last run before Ragnar.  Just wanted to shake the legs out.  Must write all incomplete sentences.

Time - 25:35 (avg. pace 8:32)

Splits - 8:34, 8:31, 8:32

Another year, another Ragnar.

I've done this race (I use that term loosely) all four years they've had it here in AZ.  Some people call this a slumber party with running involved rather than a race.  That's an accurate assessment. 

I tried to put a team together with the regulars from the last three years which have consisted primarily of people from work, but with the economy that way it is and people going their separate ways, we're not a big happy family like we used to be.  Glen from last year had declined an offer of a team from his work, Rio Salado College, to be on my team.  So when I bagged the idea to get the band back together we joined the Rio team.  I even offered my services to be their captain.

Being captain for a team of people I didn't know let alone work for was a bit intimidating.  Would they like me?  Would they be able to see right through me, that I'm a phony?  Would they end up resenting me when it was all over?  I soon found out that they were all a bunch of fun and awesome people.  Hey, they're runners for goodness sake.

I of course gave myself the longest overall distance.  That worked out because I really wanted to be in van #1 this year, and I wanted the bragging rights.  We had one guy drop out early.  He was replaced quickly by the Sebastien, the husband of Teresa already on the team.  Both of them are Boston qualifiers.  They were going to be in van #1 with me.  Like every year, Ragnar changed the course; not by much, but enough to where now a runner from van #2 had the longest overall distance.  So I rearranged the vans to put the BQers in van #2.  Now van #1 consisted of Glen, Jennifer, me, Eddie, Shannon, and Andy, and van #2 consisted of Destinie, Seb, Kristin, Teresa, Corena, and Michael.

With a couple of weeks to go until the race Jennifer had to drop out due to a knee injury.  I didn't think it would be so hard to find a replacement, but it was.  Finally 5 days before the race we got Nathan who is Bethany's husband (Bethany ran with us last year) to join us.  He was a welcome addition and a lot of fun.

The team name we voted on was Rio's Ruthless Runners.  We were assigned a 7:40am start time.  Because of that, it made sense for us to stay the night at a hotel in Prescott.  I booked a suite that I thought was going to have two separate rooms, one with two beds, and one with one bed.  All it had was one nice queen size bed and a pull out sofa bed in a tiny little room.  We gave Shannon the luxurious bed while the men slept in the tiny room.  At 2:30am I woke up drenched in sweat and very uncomfortable.  I couldn't get back to sleep.  At 4:45am I got up and started getting ready hoping the lack of sleep wouldn't come back to haunt me. 

The plan was to eat the complimentary oatmeal or pancake breakfast.  It took forever for them to make it.  Now we were running late.  And it was cold in Prescott.  I had to scrape the ice off my windshield with a reflective vest.  When we got to the starting line, I grabbed the gear needed to check in and ran to the line.  It was 7:30am.  I knew the line was too long and we were going to miss our start time.  So I cut to the front and told them I that our team started in 8 minutes.  They just gave me our bags and we barely made it.  (Thanks Ragnar.)

With such an early start time I knew that the other teams had to be as slow as us.  I wondered if our first runner, Glen, would be able to give us an early lead over the other teams that started at the same time.  Indeed he did.  Because we were such a steady team, we seemed to pass a lot of the other teams.  In fact, after we finished our second set of legs, there were only 14 teams ahead of us.

My first leg was 6.57 miles.  It was an 829 foot climb and an 879 foot descent, the highest elevation of the course near 6200 feet.  I estimated that I would run an 8:29 pace.  The climb up was killer.  I was trying to figure out where all the oxygen went.  But I did manage an overall pace of 8:25.  My splits were 7:47, 9:03, 10:03, 7:45, 7:27, and a 7:18 pace for 0.57.  I got killed twice by TTKA and L.A.M.O., and killed two teams.  My legs were sore, but I felt good.  Everyone was hitting the projections I made right on.  That's some good captaining. 

After our first set of legs we drove to the second major exchange point so we could eat and wash up in the cold tent showers.  They never did set the showers up.  I ended up wiping myself down with baby wipes.  My second leg was 8.72 miles at 7:20pm.  It was dark out, but the headlights from the cars along US93 lighted my way pretty good.  I had a 100 foot descent in the first 4 miles and a 250 descent for the remainder.  I projected an 8:08 pace, but like every year I started to get stomach cramps.  I don't know if it's that the runs are too close together, I'm not eating properly, or the sleep deprivation.  My first two miles were good, but then I started to bonk.  My legs were getting more sore, the stomach cramps were causing my breathing to become labored, and the top of my right foot was starting to hurt.  I was wondering if I was headed toward a stress fracture.  My average pace was 8:27 and my splits were 8:03, 8:05, 8:17, 8:21, 8:21, 8:29, 8:39, 8:58, and an 8:55 pace for 0.72.  Getting to the One Mile to Go sign wasn't comforting.  It was still another mile!  But at least none of them were over a 9 minute pace.  I got killed twice by the Kingman Krazies and Dude Where's My Van and killed one team.

Now I was really sore and wondering how I was going to finish my last 7.1 miles.  We went to Teresa and Seb's house to shower up.  Finally, a shower.  It felt so good.  I also got some sound sleep even though it was only about three hours.  As we were getting ready to go I got a phone call from the other van.  Someone had been hit by a car...

Story continued here.

See here for the race report on legs 3 and 15.

...I don't know all the details, but I what I do know is that a participant was struck by a vehicle while trying to cross the Carefree Highway to support his teammate.  I hear he's in critical condition.  The race officials stopped the race and had everyone collect their runners and meet at Exchange 24.  From here, the race started again.  Teresa had about a half mile to go when they picked her up.  Michael didn't get to run his second leg.  I assumed they wouldn't be handing out awards, but they did ask us where and when we stopped running.  I gather they're trying to figure something out as for team placing. 

Like I said in the previous entry, we were ahead of most of the 350 teams until then.  Now we had to start running again 1 hour and 40 minutes behind schedule.  At least there were a lot more teams to see now, and we could play the passing game again.  I was still worried about how sore I was.  I had massaged my foot real good at Teresa and Seb's house.  Then I put Icy Hot on my legs.  Thankfully everyone in the van loved the smell of Icy Hot.  My legs did start to loosen up a little.  But would my foot hold out?

I projected a 7:52 pace because I had an 887 foot descent with hardly any ascent.  I figured I'd get passed by the customary 2 teams again, but was only passed by the Cobra Kai.  They showed me no mercy.  I'm just glad they didn't sweep my leg and send me home in a body bag.  I got three kills myself even.  My first mile was 7:46.  Although it was nice that I ran faster than what I wanted, it was hard because the stomach cramps were back.  The next mile was worse at 7:57.  Then I started feeling better.  I'm not sure when the cramps stopped, but I found myself moving pretty good.  The third mile was 7:49.  Next was a 7:53.  Now I was thinking to myself that I only had a 5k to go.  I ran the fifth mile in 7:41.  The sixth mile was 7:56, and I was getting worn out.  Then I realized that I had just run 21.5 miles.  I only had 1.1 miles to go.  I pushed it a little faster and ran a 7:34.  My Garmin measured the route a little short, so the last 0.01 miles was a 5:50 pace.  I had got outkicked by a guy that I had just passed.  I'm not sure where he pulled that kick out of, but it must have come from some smelly orifice.  My average pace on that last leg was 7:48.

Anyway, I was done and actually felt good; no stress fracture.  Everyone in the van was so fun.  Eddie wore his turtle costume the whole time.  People loved it.  We went to Andy's house after our third legs to shower and freshen up.  It was nice of his wife to allow us in and let us raid their cupboards.

Another fun thing was seeing so many people I knew.  I saw Dan, Margene, and Jacob from Athlinks.com.  I saw Ran, Chris, and Dion from my hometown of Kingman.  I saw Br. and Sis. Teuller, Br. Lorsch, and Br. Causey from previous wards I've been in.  I saw Drew from last year's team.  I saw Jennifer, Emma, and Todd from my team two years ago.  I'm not even that popular!

After almost 32 hours, Rio's Ruthless Runners finally crossed the finish line in the Tempe Marketplace.  Tired and stinky, we were elated to be done.

We said our goodbyes and wondered if we'd ever see each other again.  It was all together happy and sad and every other emotion in between.  I can't wait until next year, but I call the easy legs!