The Evil Eyebrow

Category: marathon

  • Mount Desert Island Marathon

    Acadia National Park

    It’s two weeks and one day until the Mount Desert Island Marathon. I and Jenn and our friends Tim and Andrew will be meeting in Southwest Harbor to run this race. I’m quasi-ready for this race; I’ll finish, but I don’t think I’m going to enjoy the last ten miles or so.

    Whatever, my only goal is to finish.

    We’ve had the MDI Marathon on our list of races to do for a while. We honeymooned on the island, which plays home to Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor and other less-well-known towns. Conveniently, Southwest Harbor is where the race ends, and where we spent our honeymoon, so we’ll be back there for our lodging. It’s always nice to not have to climb into a vehicle to get to where ever you’re going after a race. We will merely walk a block down the street and collapse.

    Acadia National Park

    It’s going to be a nice re-visit to the location of our honeymoon, 8 years ago. Even if the end of the race will be filled with moaning and groaning and “oh my god”ing.

  • Georgia Marathon 2011 – DNF

    Today I ran the Georgia Marathon. Exactly 3.8 miles of it.

    Icing the Calf
    I managed to pull my calf again. I was at the water station at on Auburn avenue when the aching in the calf became a shooting, stabbing pain. I told Jenn to keep on without me and I’d catch the sag wagon back to the finish. Thus ended my third attempt to complete this marathon course.

    I am not as philosophical about this DNF ((Did Not Finish)) as I was about the Ironman. Although it’s true that I was badly trained for this race and questioning my ability to finish, I didn’t expect to be hobbling at mile four. I thought I might have to make a call at mile twenty! For crying out loud, I nearly beat a PR in a 10k three weeks ago. To pull a muscle this badly at mile four is profoundly depressing.

    Where to from here? Professional help and treatment. This is ridiculous and I can’t put up with it any more.

    At least I picked an appropriate backdrop for the end of my shitty race.
    Appropriate Backdrop for my Race

  • Georgia Marathon

    Tomorrow I run the Georgia Marathon. The course map is here (pdf) if you want to come cheer me on. You can figure I’ll cross the start line around 7:10 AM and be maintaining a 12:00 per mile pace (more on that in a second). So, if you happen to be at any location on the course, look for me. I’ll be wearing a blue shirt, red shorts, and a visor. Pretty much exactly this outfit ((Jennifer, also pictured here, although she’ll be wearing something else, will be running the half marathon tomorrow)).
    Peachtree Road Race 2008

    I’m predicting this race to be the most painful I’ve ever experienced.

    First, a little history: I have had great trouble completing training programs for marathons. This makes the 5th marathon I’ve trained for, but I’ve only completed one. I’ve trained for this very race three times, but have had to back out twice.

    The reasons why have been various. Injury. Laziness. Illness. They’ve all contributed. This year, I decided that despite my training being fubar ((Oh, and I haven’t been blogging much so I didn’t tell you that the 20 mile training run on that schedule was cut in half due to a calf pull and I haven’t run since. Tomorrow is going to be soooo much fun)), I was going to run the bloody race no matter what. Even if by “run” I mean, “slowly jog, then stagger, then walk” until I’m done.

    So I will line up tomorrow in my corral and set off on a pace that will not exceed 12:00 minutes per mile. I will husband and cherish and baby my strength so that I can try to get through this race without being a total wreck. I’m confident that I’ll finish. I’m not confident that I’ll be happy about it, at least, not in the miles leading up to the end.

    Wish me luck. Or come cheer me and my 17,999 closest friends on!

  • I Ran and I Didn't Die

    All evidence to the contrary.

    I finished my run

    19.0 miles in 3:49. Ugh. My pacing was poor and the last mile and a half were…painful.

    One month to the race.

    14:11 Edit: Apparently I was also salty, as shown by the cat.

    I went and checked my workout log. The last time I ran this far was for the Women’s Marathon in October of 2008. The farthest I’ve run since then was a 17.5 mile training run on the lead up to the Ironman. Go me!

  • Training for the Georgia Marathon

    I’ve got some catching up to do.

    And by catching up, I mean “I’ve got to train enough so I can finish the Georgia Marathon without feeling like I got run over by a truck.” At this stage, I’ve given up on being well enough trained to do well, now I just want to accomplish a better race than the Nike Women’s Marathon back in 2008.

    I ran an 8 mile long run on Sunday, and I’m bumping up my mileage by 3 miles each week between now and March 20th. I’ve got a taper built in and one rest week in there. What I’m looking at is this, for long runs:

    1. 8 (last weekend)
    2. 11
    3. 15
    4. 19
    5. 8
    6. 20
    7. 6
    8. Marathon

    NEVER train like this, unless you’re already at the stage where you can handle the mileage. This is such a horrible race training schedule, I find it painful to write down. Nevertheless, it’s what I’ve got, given the fact that I lost three weeks to a back injury. Damn you back!

    Yes, I’m taking steps to avoid these in the future. Besides, I need to be strong this year, we’ve got two marathons planned in October.

  • Injury – Frustration

    Backache
    Last night I attended/worked the Search for the Golden Sprocket, an event sponsored by The Extraordinary Contraptions. I arrived earlier than most of the band and discovered that the primary entrance to the venue was a slick ice death trap. Therefore, I shoveled.

    Now, I’m sitting on the couch, wondering when I’ll be able to run again. I have (again and again!) managed to pull muscles in my back that make me feel a lot older than I actually am. Hell, I’m wondering how many days it will be before I manage to walk about the house in a normal fashion. This leaves me very frustrated, because I’m in the middle of training for a marathon, and if you follow this blog you may be aware that the last marathon I trained for had to be deferred because of another injury.

    I’ll have to rejigger my training schedule based upon what I’m guessing my recovery date will be. I am going to finish this marathon, dammit, but I might change up the race schedule I have planned for the rest of the year. I’m thinking I may want to concentrate hard on one thing, strengthening my core, for the entire year. If that kept me from being a couch-ridden doofus, it would be worth giving up triathlon and serious racing for a year. Maybe I’ll go see a specialist (I wonder if my health plan would cover that?).

  • Marathon Training Continues

    With this week’s snowpocalypse, doing any sort of regularly scheduled training has been difficult. Running on the sidewalks has been impossible (or extremely ill-advised, see this image and this tweet of mine) and until yesterday it was also not advisable to trek out to the gym for indoor treadmill running (or swimming or weight lifting, or whatever).

    Thusly, this week put a bit of a bump in the training plan. Nevertheless, I’m out on Sunday morning for my next long run, all twelve miles of it. Then it’s back on schedule for progressing up to a marathon distance in time for the Georgia Marathon on March 20, 2011.

    I’ve also got planned the Atlanta Track Club Peachtree City 5k/10k for next weekend, January 22. That’s always a fun race and hopefully I’ll see lots of people I know.

    Race season is coming! I’ll be ready. Will you?

  • Back into Training, Running, Triathlon

    I’m back running, and this is making me very happy.

    Winter Wonder Wear

    I’ve been into my training regime for over a month. Things seem to be feeling well with respect to my calf, thank you very much. I even ran a race three weeks ago. That race was a remarkable difference from the triathlon in August where I discovered that no, I did not let my calf rest for long enough.

    I decided after the triathlon to let things rest entirely until November first and then ease back in. Now we’re at the end of December (mostly) and I’m feeling like I’m getting my wind back and the leg isn’t calling me a crazy man. I like that. Enough so that I just signed up for a marathon! Ninety days from tomorrow until the race.

    This year’s training is a bit schizophrenic. We deferred our entries into the Marine Corps Marathon from last October until 2011. Also, we’ve been planning for years to run the Mt. Desert Island Marathon this coming October. Which means, if you’re keeping track, Jennifer and I have three marathons planned this year, two of which are within two weeks of each other!

    So, I’ll be doing a lot of long distance running and the training to support that. However, I’ve still not given up on my goal to reduce my 5k time below 21:00. As time and health permits, I’ll be doing speed work and races to address that goal. I’ll keep you informed.

    In case you’re curious, here’s my race calendar for the year, so far:

    I’ll probably mix some other low-key races into that list, too.

  • Running/Triathlon Training: State of the Bill

    IMG_9297
    I had a commenter a while back say that he missed my posts about running and triathlon training. Alas, for the last little while there hasn’t been much to post, but here is a general update:

    Jennifer and I are registered for the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC. This race is October 31st. Those of you good at math may note that date is about 2 months away.

    We’ve been training regularly for this race, doing quite well keeping up with our schedule. Until… [duh duh DUHHHH] I pulled my calf muscle and Jennifer started having some feeling-well issues. Right now, I’m about 4 weeks behind on my training and Jenn maybe two. But all is not lost! Things seem to be better in my calf and this weekend I will be resuming my exercise schedule by participating in the Peachtree City Sprint Triathlon (Tri-PTC) which, if you recall, I had to walk 2 years ago due to another calf injury.

    I think I’ve given the leg enough time to rest and heal. Now I need to see if I’ve got enough time left to prepare adequately for the marathon. I’ll know that in a few weeks. Jenn is coming along well; if she can survive this CRUSHING SINK OF DEATH known as submitting her tenure dossier, everything will be fine.

    Despite the fact I’m racing a triathlon this weekend, I haven’t been doing any real training for triathlon this summer. I’ve been swimming enough to not drown, but I haven’t been on my bike in weeks. No, I’ve pretty much just been concentrating on running, except for the last 3 weeks where I just Sat On My Butt And Ate Bon-Bons™.1 That will obviously change soon and I’ll be back to doing three-days a week runs at work (please oh please oh please will the humidity drop soon?) and long runs on the weekend.

    I also need to work in some basic strength training. I can’t really know but I blame my lack of any strength training this spring or summer for my calf strain. I plan to go (after the marathon) and get an evaluation of my muscular weaknesses from an expert and spend the winter working on those.

    So, Triathlon this weekend. Marathon on Halloween. I’m sure there will be some other races in there, also. I’ll keep you posted.

    1: SOMBAABB is a trademark of the JBWR community. This is what we do when we’re not doing anything else.

  • Marathon, Concerts, Presentation

    It’s been a busy few days. Lots of stuff going on.

    But let’s start with something funny that I have in common with this girl who ran the ING Georgia Half Marathon today.

    Runner with Her Tongue Out

    Let’s Compare!

    Sticking my Tongue Out!

    That was last Friday while I was giving a presentation on Diverging Diamond Interchanges (Soon to be a podcast at Talkingtraffic.org!) Sticking my tongue out when I concentrate is a habit I’ve been trying to break for years. This is incentive.

    What else did I do? Oh yes: I gave a presentation to the Georgia section of the American Society of Highway Engineers on something that is near and dear to me, professionally, right now.

    Diverging Diamond Interchanges

    A diverging diamond interchange is, well, Talking Traffic is going to cover that in just a few and ’til then you can hit Wikipedia.

    The presentation went very well and I got a lot of good questions from the other engineers and planners in the audience.

    Dimitri and Aelus

    On Saturday I ran the sound board and recording setup for The Extraordinary Contraptions. Pictures of that concert, and one this morning are at my flickr stream. This was at Momocon, which is a free convention put on at Georgia Tech. It’s an anime and cosplay and steampunk convention. Much fun was had.

    North Atlanta Multisport Club

    On Sunday I grabbed my bike and my MARTA pass and headed to downtown to cheer on the other people in the North Atlanta Multisport Club who were running in the ING Georgia Marathon and Half Marathon. I also got some good pictures while following the race route.

    It’s been a good weekend!