Month: September 2011

  • Running/Training Plan – 2012

    If you’ve been reading the blog, you may remember a statement of mine in an earlier posting that went something like this:

    I am delightfully looking forward to NEVER EVER EVER running a marathon again…

    Let me tell you, training for the Mount Desert Island Marathon has been a pain in the butt for several reasons. I will enumerate them for you:

    1. The MDI Marathon is on October 16th. October is in the Fall. Summer comes before Fall. Marathon training comes before the marathon, which is in the fall. Do you see where I’m going here? Marathon training in the Summer, in Atlanta, is torturous. It’s not so much the running in the summer—we do that all the time—it’s the weekend long runs that end up being such a burden. The only time we can do the 2 and 3 and 4 hour runs is on a weekend, in the early morning. This means being very careful about activities the previous evening. Yes, running can and will impact your social life.
    2. I have been fighting a recurrent calf injury for a while. I’m happy to say that it’s been doing well the last few months, but given the condition of my leg, I very gingerly entered into this marathon training schedule. I have been doing nothing ((Almost nothing. See here.)) in running besides this marathon. No 5ks. No 10ks. Nothing. I’ve been afraid of overstressing the leg and having to drop out of the marathon. That is no fun whatsoever and I didn’t get into running for it to be no fun.
    3. An add-on to item #2, because of my calf, I’ve been training for this marathon with one goal only: finish. It’s going to be slow and I don’t like to run slowly. I haven’t been doing any training that would increase my race pace beyond the approximate 5:00 completion mark. While that is in line with my goals, and I’m happy that I’m meeting my training goals, I’m still not happy about the particular goals, if you get my drift.

    I am not swearing off marathons forever. Jennifer likes running them, and I like running with her, so I’m sure I’ll do another one sometime. Her 40th birthday present to herself will be to run the Marathon in Greece, and I suppose I could be convinced to sign up for that one. For the time being, I’m going to concentrate on other things, rather than marathons, because I feel that the 26.2 mile distance was occupying too much space in my life.

    For edification and enlightenment, here are my 2012 training and racing goals, in no particular order:

    • Maintain the ability to get up on weekends and run 13-15 miles, as a matter of course. This will serve two purposes: it will keep my base miles high, and it will let me run half marathons without too much trouble or training
    • Break 50:00 in a 10k. The Charles Harris 10k will be my race for this goal.
    • Work toward a PR in the Peachtree City Sprint Triathlon. This will be my “A” race for the year and I’d be delighted if I can come close to matching (or exceed) the performance I turned in during my ironman training year
    • Improve my 5k time from the first race of the year to the last by 8%, or beating 23:00, whichever is better ((This may seem excessive to people in the know. I’m basing the 8% off a 2:00 improvement from 25:00 to 23:00. The reason I don’t consider it excessive is because I think my first 5k of the season is going to suck, time-wise, but I have a lot of latent speed inside these legs which probably just needs to be reawakened.)).
    • Regularly do my mile-run-for-time to benchmark myself. “Regularly” is going to be “every 6 weeks” or so
    • Emphasize abdominal and hip exercises for flexibility and stabilization

    One of the reasons for the first bullet is because if you want to do long runs, you have to do long runs. One of my issues with marathon training is that I’ve always been starting from a base of near zero. Given enough time ((Most anyone can run a marathon with 6 months lead time and a committment to the training program.)), that isn’t a problem, but for the next time I sign up for a marathon, I want to start with a running base that lets me train like I want to race, not just finish. So, after recovering from the MDI Marathon, I’ll be back at weekend long runs of 13 miles or so.

    A strong base also allows you to add intensity to other workouts; workouts directed at (say) improving my 5k time by 8%. The better your base training is, the better your race-specific training can be, and it also helps prevent injuries.

    Of course, part of that strong base is training that concentrates on weaknesses. My back has been a continuous problem, and part of that problem surrounds flexibility, not just strength. I will be doing a better job this year of maintaining a program of both core strength and flexibility. Remember, it’s the exercises you hate most that you should be doing most often ((At least, that’s the way it feels to me. Single leg squats, single leg stands, plank and other core work is so mentally exhausting to me, as opposed to standard squats and bench press and the like which are physically hard, but not mentally hard. To me. Your mileage may vary.)).

    Races that I’m looking forward to next year, and have become tradition for me include:

    • Atlanta Track Club cross country 5k at Milton High School
    • Atlanta Track Club Peachtree City 5k/10k
    • Charles Harris 10k
    • Georgia Marathon (Half Marathon! Although I’m thinking about volunteering for the bike escorts this year)
    • Chattanooga Riverfront Triathlon (olympic distance)
    • Peachtree Road Race (10k)
    • Peachtree City Sprint Triathlon
    • Kaiser Permanente Corporate Challenge (5k)

    Also, with the exception of preparation for the Peachtree City Sprint Triathlon, which is my one “A” race this year, I want to be able to go out on a Saturday or Sunday and run a race just because the whim strikes me, and not worry about screwing up my marathon training. It’s a lot less important if I downgrade or drop out of a local 5k than if I have to cancel a trip we’ve been planning for over a year.

    That’s my plan. Of course, it’s only September and 2011 isn’t even over yet, but the end of my training year is nigh and I will be on the 2012 rotation at the beginning of November.

  • Household Update – Where have I Been?

    It has been a busy and stressful few months here in the Bowie/Ruhsam household. Jennifer was actively seeking employment; I was in the middle of a crisis-of-manageable-proportions at work; Dragon*Con was nigh; and we had to deal with the wrecking and replacement of one of our vehicles. Plus all the myriad things that tend to pop up at inopportune times and poke poke poke you in the adrenal glands.

    We’re fine. We’ve been dealing with this in what I consider a normal and rational way: doing what needs to be done; taking care of ourselves; trying to give ourselves rest and relaxation when we needed it; and generally letting things that were not highly critical sit and wait. Things like yard work and “real” house cleaning ((We haven’t cleaned our house thoroughly in quite a while. It’s probably time we did that)) and blogging and podcasting. So watch out if you come to our house; we may put you to work podcasting.

    Happily, Jennifer started a new job with Home Depot ((Whoops. I must practice this. [Ahem] “THE Home Depot.” It’s like THE Ohio State University. Carry on.)) as a User Experience expert. If you want to know what that is, go ask her. I managed to get the crisis-of-manageable-proportions out the door and I really wish I could charge overtime on the work I did. We are almost done with our Mount Desert Island Marathon training (thank god) and the weather has cooled off ((Also thank god. Driving an entire summer in Atlanta without air conditioning in your car is not recommended. Alas, given the job status of Jennifer’s job, I wasn’t in a position to fix it, or replace the car, back in May.)). We’re looking forward to the fall and winter where we’re traveling to two marathons, to Tulsa for Turkey Day, and staying home for Christmas and New Years. I am delightfully looking forward to NEVER EVER EVER running a marathon again ((I’m not that adamant, but I’m certainly going to wait a year or so before signing up for the next one. I want to get back into doing 5ks and 10ks with the occasional half marathon. 13 miles is a good distance. 26.2 is way too much of a pain. This is its own blog post…)) so that I can concentrate on shorter races.

    I am also delighted to have reworked our family budget last night based on our new income situation. Let’s just say that Jenn was a bit underpaid at Georgia State and leave it at that. Jenn’s brain mortgage ((Student loans)) will be happy about the increased payment, although our mortgage company probably will not be as we’ll be robbing them of additional interest ((Not that they’re making much off us right now anyway. We lucked into a perfect situation with the adjustable rate mortgage starting to adjust immediately after the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates through the floor. The ARM has adjusted downward by over half since 2008. I am not complaining, but I’m not claiming credit either; it was pure chance)).

    With less craziness and stress around the household, you, dear reader, will be seeing more frequent updates out of me here at the Eyebrow, at Talking Traffic, and at our new podcast, which we haven’t officially released into the wild yet.

  • Open Letter to the Janitor who Called Security

    Men's Room

    Dear Janitorial Service Provider:

    I am sorry to have brought you conflict on an early Sunday morning. I am also sorry to have disturbed you during what is probably a pleasant working period, being all by yourself inside a large mall at 7:30 AM. I can understand how (if my assumption is correct) you may have been a bit peeved that a strange man dressed in running gear appeared in the bathroom you were cleaning. I can also understand that you may have felt threatened when I ignored your demand ((I choose the word “demand” very carefully. It was not a request.)) that I use the bathroom that was down two flights of stairs and around three corners and hidden somewhere in the parking garage ((At least, that was my perception of your directions for finding this bathroom)). The fact that you called security because I walked across to the women’s bathroom and used one of the toilets there is, of course, your prerogative as an employee of the mall.

    I would like to bring to your attention the concept of the False Dilemma, or False Dichotomy. This concept entails the presupposition that there were only two options available: one, that you grant my politely-worded request ((I later begged, if you remember.)) to use the bathroom despite your current cleaning activities; and two, that I go find the other bathroom in a large and confusing building. The False Dilemma supposes that there were no other options. For example: me using the women’s rest room, or, much more likely and apropos to this letter, that I would try to find the other bathroom you sent me to, but not make it before experiencing what is colloquially referred to as a “gastric event.”

    You see, I respect the fact that the sign said the bathroom was closed. However, my condition was such that I had no time left to find a suitable establishment to relieve myself. I was in a state that demanded immediate attention or else there would be a mess to clean up. I like to think that I did you a favor by not attempting to follow your directive and instead violated your order and societal norms to use the women’s rest room. The fact I did so meant that neither you nor I would have to deal with the unfortunate likelihood ((Yes, I thought it was likely that I would not make it to the bathroom downstairs in time)) of a diarhettic episode in the middle of your mall. I’m sure you didn’t want to clean up my waste, and I also didn’t want to deal with the aftermath of such an event.

    That is why I cheerfully nodded to you—after requesting several times and explaining why I wanted to use your bathroom—and proceeded to choose the option I did. You left me with no good options, so I chose what I saw as the least worst.

    Next time you are presented with a situation such as this, with someone politely begging you to use the restroom, I urge you to remember and perhaps take pity on that person. Then, there will be no need for a security guard to escort me out of the building.

    To the security guard who escorted me from the building: I appreciated your calm and businesslike manner, however after explaining to me why it was unacceptable for me to use the women’s restroom and also to ignore the staff person’s directive, and my acknowledgement that I perfectly understood, it’s rather insulting to tell me twice that “No, I don’t think you do.” For reasons and reference, I point you to the paragraph earlier in this essay regarding the False Dilemma.

    Yours very sincerely,
    Bill Ruhsam
    Runner

  • Against the Death Penalty

    Morally, I am in favor of the death penalty; procedurally, I am against it, and when it comes to questions of life and death, I think we should err on the side of caution.

    Troy Davis was executed last night here in Georgia. Was he innocent? Who knows? But that seems to have been the point. I am not familiar with the trial beyond what was in the papers, but it certainly seems like there might be some cause for doubt, despite all the denied appeals.

    My question is, “Can we be 100% certain in all cases that there were no mistakes, bias, or unfairness that led to the execution of this convicted criminal?” and my answer to that is, “No.” It’s government, and nothing can be perfect. This is why I am not in favor of the death penalty.

    A secondary reason is that it seems from my uneducated perspective that the death penalty is more expensive than simply incarcerating someone for the rest of their natural life. “Seems” I say, but I don’t have any numbers, however Mr. Davis was convicted of a 1989 murder. He’s been on Death Row for 20 years and has had four appeals. You do the math.

    For details, see the AJC article:
    http://www.ajc.com/news/davis-appeals-fail-executed-1186263.html

  • Georgia Shakespeare needs Help!

    The company of players we get season tickets for every year has put out a call for help. It boils down to Georgia Shakespeare needs money, please give.

    If you have the inkling to help out a Georgia organization, we certainly would appreciate it. It would be a tragedy if this fine company had to cease operations. Instructions for donations can be found on the linked page.