Some distance removed

As the events around the date of Steamtown have gotten smaller and smaller in my rear-view, I've continued to move ahead. I once again am running. I resumed doing so with a mere 3 miles on the 9th. Since then, I have pretty much gotten myself back up to speed in distance terms at least. I've done some minor pushing of the pace but not a ton. My first test of speed is going to be in a 5K this weekend. With how things are lining up, I will be able to attend one of my favorite courses in the past couple of years down in Delaware.

Now you may be asking, isn't the marathon in Atlantic City this weekend? It is but I opted to play it wise and not compete in it. The race just did not match enough of what I needed my marathon to be. And if I had gone down and run a miserable race, I think it would have a negative impact.

Instead, my major race coming up is a 30K trail race out near Blue Knob State Park. It is roughly a 4 hour drive from Philadelphia. I feel strongly I will be able to have fun at it even if my ultimate goal is to be competitive and hopefully compete for the win.

But one step at a time. And first up is the weekend 5K on the road.

When things go off track...

If you have been reading this blog, you know that I was registered to run in the Steamtown Marathon yesterday up in Scranton. Unfortunately, things do not always work out how we wish.

On Friday night around 1am (really Saturday morning), I went to the ER with severe lower left abdominal pain that evolved into throwing up without any pain relief. For me to even consider going to the doctor for anything is a big deal. The ER means it was bad. I spent 9 hours there getting fluids and medication and trying to get something of a diagnosis. While there I did get a CT scan with contrast. At the end, the biggest sign of anything was with my blood cell count showing signs of a massive infection. The timing of this could not have been any worse. Doctors advice was to not race on Sunday.

Yet, for us serious runners, it is not always so easy. I worked for months to prepare for this race. And I was considered one of the contenders. Knowing who was racing, I had a formulated race strategy. I didn't just want to throw that out the window. Plus, from an economic standpoint, I had a hotel room with a non-refundable rate. So, thus, the beginnings of a debate as to what to do. At the hospital, I told myself that my goal was to run but I would give my body time to make the decision. I figured since I had to go use the room, might as well put off the decision. Well, on the way home my choice got a bit of a bump as my stomach did not want to hold down what it had inside. For me that sealed the deal. My Steamtown was done. It is a hard decision to make to withdraw at such a late stage. Thankfully, the hotel was kind enough due to the circumstances to cancel my reservation and not charge me. This was a huge relief. But I still felt down even if my body was telling me there was no way I could race a marathon.

Coming to grips with the reality, I was at a crossroads. Do I try to find a marathon now to run or just move along? And if I looked at marathons, would any help me achieve my goals? I decided to do my best to look at some races in the next several weeks while I still have the conditioning and mental resolve. So two weeks from now, I will be racing in the Atlantic City Marathon on its improved course. This gives me time to recover and focus.

But what happened at Steamtown? Turns out it was a slower day than usual. Only one person went under 2:30, Matt Byrne. I'm very happy for him to win and become the first 3 time winner of the race. It would have been great to run with him but it is a nice mental help to know that no one else went under the 2:30 mark so while I might have been happy with my placing, the time could have been a letdown. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to race Steamtown next year. But right now, my eyes are set on Atlantic City.

Rumblings

Less than a week out now! Yesterday marked the one week mark until Steamtown. Found out one of my former teammates and training partners, Matt Byrne will be racing. He is from the Scranton area and it is basically his home marathon. It will be great to see him again since he moved out of Philly even if it is race.

I’m in the midst of low mileage now. Granted I did run a peaceful 11.5 yesterday morning. (And I did do a modest 5K effort on Saturday.) Between today and the start, I’m looking at maybe 12 more miles. I’m getting twitchy and nervous. I did catch my first weather glimpse today but really won’t think about the weather much until Thursday when it is more likely to be reflective of the temps I will be encountering.

Almost forgot to mention (thus, my edit), that I have begun reading Scott Jurek's Eat & Run. While a pleasant read, it is not as meaty a book as I hoped for. It goes by just too quick. I started it yesterday at 3pm. I'm only 50 pages from the end. It really should have been double the length. At least that is my opinion as a serious runner reading it. I thought I would be reading this on Saturday in my hotel. Guess not. Either I won't be reading anything or my copy of Duel in the Sun will arrive by then. (I'm doing some reading now that is not about the US Senate, The Park Service, The Forest Service, Forest Fires, the New Deal or the Hoover Dam.)

Taper Pains

With just a little over a week out from Steamtown, I am in the midst of my taper. It is nice but frustrating at the same time. I like the physical rest from the reduction in miles but when one is operating on all cylinders it feels like deploying the parachute in a drag racer way too early. This morning it felt odd that I woke up knowing I would not run at all today. Only the fourth day off since my ultra in July.

My latest dilemma is whether to add one more 5K speed/tempo session this Saturday. My choices are either one of my favorite courses out in Blue Bell, PA for a cause that is good but a bit more religious in its mission statement than I like or a course up the street I can walk to. While the latter is appealing for its proximity, you have to remember that I run around here all the time so it might not be as inspired. Especially since I raced the course back in the spring.

Those are not the only options really but the most reasonable from the sense I won't get into a showdown that will negatively impact me on the 7th. Even if I could try to race not one but two races for $100 bucks. One of those is nice and early but I have a lot of complacency on that course because I run and bike the route at least 5 days a week. (It is on my bike route to and from work.)

In the end, I might not do any but still....

So one more trail...

Two days after my last post, I ended up hoping into a local trail race series. Or I should say one more trail race for me. Can't beat the cost...0. And some good runners come out to tackle a mysterious trail course that nobody knows until they show up. This year the Wissahickon Fall Series partnered with New Balance and Bryn Mawr Running Company to step it up a notch. Anyways, Thursday's race was a mere 2.75 miles but some really technical trail footing. Actually, a heck of a lot more than I expected. I was rocking my Inov-8 F-lites thinking we'd be on some more wide open double track that you could really open it up on. Once the race started, I did my best to work myself outfront and I managed to get on the trail first. However, right when we went into a big technical rocky downhill, I was swooshed. My reaction was...WHOA! And the person kept opening a nice gap on top of the distance he gained on the downhill. But I kept at it steadily eating back at his lead. Once we got off root riddled and boulder hopping stretch, I really started chopping it down, especially when we kicked it up climbing. With about 2/3rd of a mile to go, I caught up to the leader before he had one last surge to try to add some distance between us. But with a half mile to go, I finally caught up to him again and passed for good putting some serious distance before the finish. So I managed to come from behind for the win. Really happy with my performance.

And just two days later, (or yesterday), I traveled down to Maryland for my first ever race in that state. I ventured down to Havre de Grace for the Celebration Run, which is a 5K held in town for the past 15 years. (This year was 16) I was enticed by running a new course and the $100 gift card for 1st thru 3rd. Plus, I was in the town once before last year on my way back from Baltimore. It has some waterfront views. Considering I was back on the roads, I didn't have to worry too much about technical footing. However, not long after the race started, I had to worry about one thing....directions. Despite being such an established race, the course was open to traffic and had no course marshals. Luckily, I knew two things, the course did have arrows in orange and once I got by the 1 mile mark, I only had two more turns. At the registration, they had plenty of copies of the course available to look at. I also got the run down on the course from a runner who I have seen at a lot of my Delaware races. All of these things were a big help because within the first 1/3 of a mile, I was out all alone. About 1/2 mile in I got confused about a possible turn but I saw the orange arrow and went the right way. From there, nose to the grindstone and hammered out a 15:57. Second ended up being over three minutes back. It would have been a lot closer but apparently the people running 2nd and 3rd at the two mile mark, blew by the next to last turn. For my victory I got $100 to Dicks Sporting Goods which will come in handy at some point. And I celebrated the Celebration Run with breakfast at the Waffle House in town. Oh yeah.

Not sure of next weekend's racing. I may or may not race since as of today I am two weeks out from Steamtown. I'm feeling really good about my condition and don't want to screw it up.

With the fury of the trail and ultra (all of one 50 miler) seasons behind me, it seems I continue to neglect this blog just a smidge.

Since my last post, I have been much more active racing, alleviating some of the worry I had relative to my conditioning. I’m feeling much better about where I am at physically and as such, mentally.

To follow-up on the possible 10 miler in my previous post, I did wind up traveling to York for its premier 10 Miler. In an effort to avoid, a long drive in the morning, I opted to drive out the night before and stay the night. It was the first time since 2001 that I spent the night in York. (In 2008, Peg and I got stuck in York when our car brokedown. But then we were not in downtown York.) Great weather really made it a nice outing and even better race. Despite some bus shenanigans (it is a point to point) and a delayed race start (which did help me), the race went super smooth. I was out front solo from the get go cranking out rather steady miles on the converted rail line. Even managed to drop my 2^nd fastest split in the last mile! In the process, I set a new PR in 55:31. Considering, it was only my second 10 mile race and on a cinder-like trail surface, I might be able to whack off some more time on a road course. At the end of the day, I had a huge boost in my confidence.

In the weeks since the race, I have done two more 5K’s, each with increasingly faster times. (They were not any races that were too special in terms of prestige. Yet, I will note that the HCA 5K win was the 1^st time I have won the same race 4 times in a row. Which I believe, may match the number of times I have won Milltown’s July 4^th 5K.) And I have been feeling real solid in my workouts. (So confident that on the 8^th, I ran 20 miles home from a BBQ/Bowling outing at 10pm. It worked out nice because I slept in on Sunday knowing my 20 miler was done.) Now the tough part is going to begin. The taper. I am ready for it but feel so guilty not running my normal mileage. However, with Steamtown, just a little less than three weeks away, no need to be stupid. I am ready for that race. (Especially, now that I finally booked my room. I waited a bit late but got a nice place not too far for race morning that did not require two nights.)

A month later....

Where has the time gone?

It sure has been a while since I've written for this blog. Luckily there is not too much ground to cover in the past month. Since last time, I've only one race down in the state of Delaware. It was a 5K on the roads and a modest effort so it is not much to write about in itself.

For most of the past month, I have been mentally struggling with my running. You could say I am feeling burnt out. And without what I would call ideal races to run, I am lacking a means to really show myself if my hard work is achieving its goal of progress. There is a possibility that next weekend, I might hit a 10 mile rail trail run. I know the trail's surface so it is more like soft road which is still pretty fast. However, I am going to play this week by feel as I need to kick start the positive and I think a bit of rest may been needed. So while I should be running 70 miles this week, if I do not but have quality in what I do, I'll be happy. Today, for example, should have been 20 but I was not going to do anything at all. In the end, I felt relaxed to go out and do 6 with two of those miles on the track very modestly but in a solid 5:27 each.