42nd and Pine

I complain about the heat. A lot. I admit that. But the past few days have been ridiculous. We're talking highs of 105 on Friday, 100 on Saturday, and about 97 yesterday. I would suggest that on Friday and Saturday it felt even hotter due to the bright sunshine and high humidity.

We weathered, sometimes with good cheer even, the heat and had a great, busy, sweltering weekend in Philadelphia with friends from Wisconsin, and while I was there I was hoping to get a run in. After all, Philadelphia is where I lived for a year starting in June 1999 and where I made my first attempt to become a runner. It wasn't a very good attempt. I recall on my first or second evening in my apartment going for a run in 95-degree heat. I made it about 2 blocks.

More often, when I went somewhere in my car, I would park at the garage at 36th and Chestnut where I kept my car and attempt to run from there to my apartment at 42nd & Pine. I never made it the whole way -- I specifically recall a freezing night where I made it about 2 minutes before my lungs were just in terrible pain from the bitter cold air and my ankles in complete agony from running in what were probably worn-out, extremely cheap sneakers. I never would have imagined that this would become my favorite weather to run in!

Returning to the present, we sweated out a crazy 18-10 Camden Riversharks game on Friday night, and since it was still 95 degrees at 11:00 at night when the game ended, I decided that there was no way I was going to try to run on Saturday morning.

According to the forecasts on display in our hotel lobby, Sunday looked like it would be a little cooler, but I would still guess it was approximately 80 degrees when I stepped out of our hotel at 5:15am yesterday morning. Still, I took off westward from 15th & Locust, the site of the job that had lured me to Philly, but choosing to turn and run up Chestnut Street since I was familiar with it from some adventures in the Philadelphia Half Marathon (except that it was about 40 degrees cooler then!) and I knew it had a bridge.

(30th St. Station as seen from the Chestnut St. bridge)

I ran up Chestnut Street and turned onto Locust Walk when I got into the University of Pennsylvania Campus, which I was somewhat familiar with since my sister attended Penn while I lived at 42nd and Pine. Once through the campus, I turned left and then made a right on Spruce, passing Allegro, my old favorite pizza place.

(No, I didn't stop for a cheesesteak. Maybe that would have helped)

I made it the few blocks down to 42nd Street and turned left. At the corner of 42nd and Pine, a familiar building:



I took a few extra steps on Pine Street to scope out the rear of the building, where my apartment is visible on the first floor (the window you see directly above the two garbage cans was my kitchen):


It never looked like much from the outside, and seems a little worse for wear 12 years later, but I had once felt at home in my little studio apartment. It was a weird feeling to be back on this corner. I wasn't really sentimental about it. There were no roots put down, no neighbors that I'd ever said much more than "hello" to, no sign that I'd ever lived here, and my memories are mostly just of playing video games and cooking turkey burgers and my indoor counter-top grill (Not the one endorsed by the boxer). It was just an odd, deja-vu type feeling, it all looked and felt so familiar, as if it had been much less than the 12 years since I'd walked down this street.

Still, when it's 80 degrees before 6am, there's no time for reminiscing. I'd reached my old apartment about 30 minutes into my run, and I was definitely feeling the heat. I headed back up Spruce Street in the direction of my hotel. After a two-block climb back to 40th Street, it was all downhill to the Schuylkill River, at which point i made a right onto Walnut Street since there's no bridge on Spruce. I took Walnut back toward the downtown and after passing Rittenhouse Square, turned around at Broad Street, a few blocks past my destination, in hopes of stretching this run to an hour.

Here's map of my route. I was out for an hour and two minutes, and during that time only got about 5 and a half miles, which was about all I could take in those conditions. Except for the weather, it was a nice trip down Memory Lane for me. Not counting my failed attempts at running in 1999 and 2000, I'd only run a few times in Philadelphia, and it had been either in races (2 half marathons and 1 Broad Street Run) or boring laps around Rittenhouse Square while training for my first 5K.

For someone who hadn't lived in this neighborhood and didn't need to revisit old, yet boring memories, I would suggest running the other direction, toward the Delaware and the historic sights of Old City instead or perhaps the jogging/biking path along the Schuykill. Philadelphia's downtown is very flat, so it seems like it could be a nice place to run. Just not during a record-breaking heat wave.

As predicted, last week was the lowest mileage week I've had in months. Of course, I rested on Monday and Tuesday for a one-mile race on Wednesday, and then the heat crushed me on Thursday and Sunday morning. I ended up with less than 13 miles, a weekly total less than my best individual run the previous week. The forecast for this week looks a bit cooler, with overnight lows in the 70s or even high 60s, so I hope I can come back strong.

Friday Haiku, Volume VIII

Summer, you have won.
All my resolve melts away.
This week I yielded.


I surrender.

We've had 100 degree temperatures over the past few days and predicted to continue through the weekend. It was 78 degrees at 5:00am yesterday morning. I kept a slow pace but cut my run short by 4 miles (6 mile run, down from a plan of 10). I've acclimated to the heat quite a bit compared to where I was a month ago, but I'll never get used to that that.

Last Friday, I ran 14 miles. I won't total that this whole week.

It's a setback, but not as bad as it sounds. I still had my great run last Friday, 10 on Sunday (which I count as part of last week), a one-mile PR (that I am very sore from) and six in some of the worst conditions I've ever run in. I'm anticipating another heat-shortened run tomorrow morning as PA continues to get pounded by an extreme heat advisory lasting through the weekend, I might even skip that.

There's a time for maximum effort, but this isn't it.

Race Report: 2011 Miller's Mutual Harrisburg Mile

Last night was the Harrisburg Mile, a summer race that's become something of a tradition for us. Chris and I started running it in 2007, my first year of racing, and we've run it every year since except for 2009, when a scheduling conflict prevented us from racing.

The Harrisburg Mile course runs straight down Front Street along the Susquehanna River, beginning at Maclay Street and ending at Boas Street. It's really very scenic, but I always fail to appreciate it until after the race because A.) I'm running as fast as I can and B.) It's usually ungodly hot.

This year would be no exception. With temperatures in the high 90s yesterday and a heat index (again, according to weather.com) of 98 remaining at 7pm, I think this was my hottest Harrisburg Mile yet. (2007 gives it a run for its money, 2008 was a little less hot but oppressively humid, and last year we got a little bit of relief). We were already hot by the time we'd walked from our car to the starting area. I'd set a fairly aggressive goal for myself of a sub six-minute mile, but conditions were not favorable. I kept telling myself "It's only a mile. It's only a mile."

My heat went off at 7:15. About five minutes prior, the starter called people up to the start line. With heats going off every 10 minutes (or less in the case of the Corporate Challenge heats), there's no time for screwing around. With a faster goal than years past, I debated where to start. There is chip timing, but I knew that a six-minute mile was at the extreme edge of what I could do, and so I didn't want to get caught behind too many people, nor did I want the people that were shooting for a faster finishing time to trip over me. I overheard a few other people say there trying to run sixes, so I stood near them in the third or fourth row, only about 10 feet -- if that -- back from the starting line.

The starter called time remaining till start until only a few seconds remained..."Hold...hold...GO!" And so I went. To meet my goal, I needed a pace of 10mph. Looking down at Garmin, I saw that I was right on pace, far, far outside my comfort zone. I hit the quarter mile sign right at about 1:30, but I couldn't quite hold the 10mph pace and so I hit the half mile sign at 3:10. I don't remember seeing the 3/4 mile marker, honestly the race is really a blur. I was giving it everything I had and it was as hot as hell, my only comfort was that it would be over quickly. As I saw the finish line, I knew my 5:59 or better was not going to happen, but a pretty significant PR was still well within reach. I tried to increase speed at the end, but there wasn't anything left for a sprint to the finish -- the whole race was my sprint to the finish.

6:21.

That's a PR by 23 seconds, but 22 seconds short of my goal. My average speed was 9.45 miles per hour (compared to 8.9 last year). I'm happy with that, especially considering that it was run during a heat and air quality advisory -- more Brian-unfriendly running conditions could scarcely be found. But on the other hand, this just reinforces a lesson that I need to learn or a choice that I need to make: If I am going to care about PRs and finishing times in shorter races, I need speedwork. I've clearly reached the limits of how far I can go with a strategy (or lack thereof) that's exclusively focused on running distance and then "run as fast as I can" during the shorter races.

I think I can improve my marathon time with more long runs in advance of race day and smarter pacing on race day (slower throughout the race so I don't hit the wall as hard), but if I'm going to beat this time next year or keep lowering my 5K PRs then I need to hit the track. I might be able to gut out a slightly faster 5K PR with my current approach, but I don't think I can beat a 6:21 mile without speedwork. I'm so close being under six. I can do it. Do I want it badly enough?

As I've talked about here before, I'm not sure of the answer to that. I care about my performance, but I also need to keep running enjoyable for me or I won't do it. Still, I think a finishing time under six minutes is worth some track work.

You win this year, Harrisburg Mile. But I'll be back.

5:59 or bust.


Review
The Mile is unique among all my races -- the only one that really feels like a sprint -- and that's what makes it fun. That's not it's only redeeming quality, however. The scenery is nice , though like I said I had such tunnel vision that I hardly noticed it. Crowd support is also good, the Mile has been going on since 1982, so it really is a strong tradition in the Harrisburg community with lots of spectators.

Another positive, of course, is that there's "free" beer at the end. That's always appreciated on a 90+ degree evening. This year the race was part of the Michelob "Race to the Ultra" series, which meant that there was Michelob Ultra signage EVERYWHERE and that this was the beer of choice at the beer tent. I always think Michelob Ultra's marketing is funny -- it's the beer that tries to pass
itself off as a sports drink. Unlike past years the post-race party area was very well set-up and the line moved very quickly.

(Yes, I raced to the Ultra. There, I said it. Can I get my corporate sponsorship check now, please?)

Race organizers also rose to the challenge of the extreme heat by having cold water at the starting area, which in my case likely made a huge difference as I realize I probably didn't hydrate well enough during the day yesterday, and ample water at t he finish, which was not the case when my heat finished last year. Running out of water at a race in July? That's a huge error that was thankfully corrected this year.

The swag for the race was also excellent, which is typical of the Mile. In the past we've gotten a drawstring backpack (I know they're super cheap, but this one has a zipper pocket and has come in handy on my occasions), a fairly bland but ok t-shirt, and a sleeveless shirt that's one of my favorite beach or pool shirts. This year, another t-shirt, but at least it's different from the previous years' designs, and it's colored. Not bad.

But, the star of the giveaways, the thing that takes this from good to awesome are re-usable cups from Dunkin Donuts that can be refilled with iced coffee for 99-cents per refill for the rest of the year. We get Dunkin iced coffee almost every week, so this is a good perk.

The only area for improvement that I would mention are that the clocks get re-set very quickly between heats. If someone runs a 10-minute mile pace or above, it seemed as if they didn't see their time when they crossed the finish line. This wasn't the case in any previous year that we've been there.

Oh -- and the heat. Any chance of it moving the Mile to April? No...I didn't think so, but it was worth a try.

22 Miles

So, this is supposed to be a running blog.

Not a haiku blog. Not a cat-pictures blog. Not a pictures-of-food blog. And not a cranky guy complaining about the weather all the time blog.

So then. Running. Yeah...ok. Usual route (10 miles through Manchester and Mt. Wolf), usual pace (1:39ish), usual amount of sweating (gallons). And we're done. Carry on. Nothing more to see here.

Easiest. Post. Ever.

What? We're not done. But it's really &^%$ hot out there! Oh, fine.

12 miles ridden on the rail trail at 3:00pm in the afternoon in 90+ degree weather then.

Now I'm done, right? Ok, someone please lift these donuts into my mouth.

Therein lies the dilemma of the running blogger, at least this running blogger. On one hand, yesterday's 22 miles was my second-highest mileage day ever (even if 12 of it was achieved through cheating), and that seems worthy of blogging. But on the other hand, it's pretty boring reading -- I've already posted lots of pictures from biking on the rail trail, wrote about my normal running route (a pretty boring one, I admit). There's not a lot of race reports, which I admit are my favorite thing to write, over the dog days of July and August, since I don't race as much during these months, so it could get even more boring around here. I'll probably resort to a post of my favorite races, best swag, worst races. You know, exciting stuff like that.

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But, anyway, here's the longer version:

My run on Sunday morning was complete drudgery, so the above summary pretty much suffices. It wasn't quite as slow as Friday's version, but still definitely on the upper end of my range. It was a better day for testing the new Reebok Playdry visor, since it was sunnier. The visor still seems ok. It covers my forehead and keeps sun out of my eyes, but is cooler than a regular hat or even (in my case) sunglasses. The visor itself gets soaked, and I think it will be fun to post a picture of how gross it is by the end of the summer, or at least until I can't stand it anymore and need to try to wash it.

When I picked up some other stuff at the running store last week, I noticed that Brooks and Nike had visors that were a thinner material on the non-brim parts of the visor than the Reebok. Maybe they would stay dryer? At any rate, my new piece of gear seems adequate, at least, but other than that it was usual pace and usual route -- NOW with even more humidity!

I knew that Chris and I were planning on biking later, but I was in a hurry to run some errands and then get to PetSmart for my cat adoption center volunteer gig, so I failed at breakfast. Usually after a long run I'll have waffles or bread with lots of Nutella or peanut butter (or waffles with Nutella and maple syrup on them -- delicious!), but since I was in a hurry I chugged a bottle of gatorade, quickly ate a bowl of cereal, cleaned up and headed out.

As I was driving on my first errand, I realized this wasn't going to cut it -- I could hardly stay awake. So my first errand was to eat a the King Size Payday bar. 440 delicious, peanutty calories later, I felt MUCH better.

(Mmmm...recovery)

After refueling, I went to help adorable homeless cats find homes. Well, that's the intent. There weren't any applications, but at least I got to play with kittens (Sorry! I know, not a cat blog.) before heading off to the rail trail.

(This is Chester. Want to adopt him? Trust me, you do.
www.ycspca.org)

We began our ride at the northern end of the rail trail at the old courthouse in York. The temperature was in the mid-90s, significantly hotter than our other rides on the trail. Usually as we ride, I feel cooler. However, this time as we rode southward, the heat kept its intensity. I briefly took my helmet off to try to cool down, with little effect. Luckily for us, once we started to get out of the city, the trail became shadier and cooler, and we paused for water at 4 miles, 6 miles (our turnaroudn point just past Howard Tunnel), and at 9 miles. Overall, we rode 12 miles in 1:20,going faster on the return trip.

The total for the day was 22 miles in 2 hours and 59 minutes. Two Maple Donuts were earned by the day's adventures. (The Payday was lunch!)

One day later, my legs are very tired. Luckily, today was a day off. I was going to run tomorrow morning, but it's supposed to be 75 at 6am. Since, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, have lows predicted to be in the low 60s, I may wait an extra day and run Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

The Hunt for Cold November

I've had many a summer run, and if you're bothering to read this you probably have, too. You know, those days when the humidity is crushing and it just feels hard to breathe out there. I'm fond of saying that on days like that it feels like I should be running in scuba gear.

:
That just wasn't going to cut it today. Today was more like this:


I've had (by my modest standards) a great summer of running so far. I had eight 10-mile runs in June and 3 of 10 or more in July in just this first week of July. I had zero runs of 10 or more miles between the first week of May last year (Broad Street Run) and October. But, this is the first summer where I'm training for the Philly Marathon rather than the half, so for the first time in my "career" I'll need to get longer runs than that in July, August, and September. (My total mileage might not increase much, since I'm going try to follow the mileage plan a little more strictly than I followed my last one, where I on average ran one fewer time per week than called for but lengthened all my midweek runs.) 10 miles won't cut it.

I never felt like I had it, whatever it is, today and crashed after 7 miles out of an intended 10. I'm not too worried. Weather.com said there's an air quality warning today, and I did feel like my breathing was as good as usual. Also, I was long overdue for a bad run. I do think I need to try something new to make these summer runs more enjoyable. I really like running at night, but the volume of bugs in the air at night makes that seem gross in the summer, and it's not that much cooler or less humid than it is in the morning, so it's probably not worth it to eat a pound of bugs.

I'm already pushing my limits of getting up early, but perhaps getting up a little earlier and doing at least my long runs on the rail trail, where there's some shade and maybe more of a breeze (maybe?) will make these summer runs a little more bearable. Maybe bringing the Shuffle back will at least distract me from how gross I am.

Or, I'll just have to grin and bear it and hope it pays off in November.

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After getting several recommendations to try a visor for sun protection w/o the heat of running in a hat, I bought a white Reebok Playdry visor from Dick's Sporting goods, where it was labeled as being on sale for $7.49 and then rung up as costing less than $4.00. (Original price: $16.00) I believe it was so heavily discounted because it was the 2010 model. It seemed to be identical to a 2011-labeled visor, which was also discounted but not as deeply. They had Reebok visors available in black and reflective yellow, although I think only the one I grabbed was marked down as much. I love baseball caps, but visors aren't a good look for me, so I wasn't too worried about aesthetics. Lightweight, light-colored, supposedly moisture-wicking, and not too expensive were my selection criteria. That said, I own many pieces of goofy-looking running gear, and I don't think my new visor is among them.

I wore it on my run today and it didn't make things worse. That may not sound like a glowing endorsement, but from someone who hates running in the heat as much as I do and (sorry to be gross) sweats as much as I do from my head, that is pretty high praise for headwear. It certainly didn't make me feel less disgusting, but it was definitely an improvement over running with sunglasses, which always make my face feel much hotter. Hopefully the visor will let me get my face and eyes some sun protection without making me feel hotter. We'll see how it does on a less hazy day with brighter sunshine.

I've been meaning to occasionally do some product reviews here in hopes that I'll eventually get some free gear to test (at least I'm honest, right?), so if the visor performs especially well or turns out to be a cheap piece of crap that doesn't last a week, I'll be sure note that here. If it helps, it's one of the best bargains I've ever gotten and probably would have been worthwhile at $16. If it doesn't, at least I didn't pay full price!

"Race" Report: 2011 "9" Mile Tour de Memorials

I had no shortage of Memorial Day Weekend racing opportunities:

• There was a 5K starting at 11:59pm on Friday Night. I'd had a good 8-mile run that morning, though, in hot and humid conditions and thought that might be overdoing it.
  
  
• There was a 5K starting in Wrightsville that crossed the Susquehanna on Saturday, but I opted for the bike ride instead.
  
  
• There was the MCVET 5K & 10K Sunday morning. I can't say enough about what a good event this was when I ran the 10K in 2009, but I had cat adoption center duty that afternoon, and I thought would make for a rough day.
  
  
• And I saw that this morning (Monday) there was a 5K and 9-mile untimed training run that passed all of York's memorials.
  

I thought this last option sounded cool. Despite living most of my life in York, including all the time that I've been a runner, I've never really done a race that went through downtown. I've run a lot of 5Ks so far this year, and I'm also stuck in a rut lately in my training as the weather warmed, unable (or unwilling!) to push myself past 8 or 9 miles.

The 9-mile "Tour de Memorials" sounded like just what the doctor ordered. Except that my dislike, to put it politely, of running in hot temperatures is well known, and this was a brutally hot and humid day for a run.


I regretted my machismo within the first two miles. I was taking it easy according to plan, but there's no such thing as easy for me when it's almost 80 degrees at 8:00am. I had my camera phone, and I'd planned to stop and take pictures of the monuments and have a nice tour of the city, but once I got underway my only thought was to keep putting one foot in front of the other until I had completed the course. I really can't think of a single intelligent thought I had the whole time I was out there running.

(This is how I felt at mile 2.)

(This is how I felt at mile 6)

My pace was slow (9.5 miles in 1:36) and I felt close to overheating at times, but I did run the whole time. On a day like this, I'll take it.

Review
I'm an easy grader, but there were some issues with this one. The website claimed both courses were mostly flat. Again, I think race directors and runners (at least this runner) have vastly different definitions of flat. The total elevation change may not have been much, but there was a lot of up and down on the course. (A commenter who ran the 5K said it was not flat, either.) But, the cold (hot?) hard fact is that I don't live in a flat part of the country. Of course, I may feel differently after the Druid Hill race (which sounds like it's supposed to be torturous) a few weeks from now.

Secondly, a snafu along the course, when the fairgrounds was closed where we were supposed to go in, changed the distance and added a half a mile. Really, it was not a big deal. If the change in course had caused a water station to be missed, I would have been much more upset about it on a day like today.

There was a lot to like though, too. Basically, for the same price ($25, which goes toward developing a garden to honor the fallen soldiers of York) as the 5K, there was a challenging, well-marked longer distance run that was a nice tour of York, despite me really failing to appreciate it. Runners had some flexibility; the same bib numbers could be worn for either distance, so you didn't really have to decide which distance you were running until the gun (Which was actually the York Revolution's home run cannon fired by Cannonball Charlie) went off. The t-shirt is nice, and the very, very much appreciated water at the two water stations was ice-cold.

Would I run it again? That's what it always comes down to, right? I'm not sure. Any judgement of this event that I have is going to be clouded by the fact that it took place in weather conditions that, in my opinion, are pretty much the worst possible conditions to run in. If it were 10 degrees cooler, which is more typical for this time of year here, I would probably have had a better time, and I might run this course in the winter to shake up my routine. Race directors are very powerful beings indeed, but they can't control the weather or flatten out a not-so-flat city. The things they could control went generally well. I think I would run it again, but I would probably choose the 5K on a day like this.

(I thought they did a nice job with the race shirt.)

Now excuse me, I'm off to get some iced coffee and a donut.

(Please Don't) Bring the Heat

I had one of the least enjoyable runs ever this morning. Eight miles in 1:14, so not a bad distance or pace considering how completely a busy work week and awful weather have destroyed my running this week. It's hard to find time to run when you're busy building an ark.


After missing a run on Tuesday evening when it started deluging (Is that a word? I guess it is!) just as I set out, and not having any opportunity at all yesterday due constant rain all day, I knew this morning was likely my only chance to get some miles in.

On the plus side, a temperature of 59 degrees and overcast. The downside: 95% humidity. It was so wet, and the air so heavy, that I felt like I needed scuba gear.

Whether the humidity or the lack of running this week, my legs just felt dead. Eating more Sports Beans than I've ever eaten before seemed to give me a little energy back, and I drank plenty of water, but I still felt really exhausted and disgusting most of the way through this one.

Unfortunately, I just hate running in the heat and humidity, and getting my distance is going to be a challenge. I'd rather run 15 miles in 40-degree weather (or even 10-degree weather) than 8 miles on a day like today.

About this time last year, I cut my mileage back from three 10 mile runs per week to three 6-7 mile runs per week as the weather got more warm and humid, with the occasional 8 or 9 thrown in if we had a cooler, less humid day or I felt particularly good. My problem this year is that I'm running the full marathon at Philly, instead of the half, on November 20, and I don't think those mileages will cut it.

I should be ok adding most of my distance in September, October, and Early November, but if I want to get in two or three 20 mile runs before the marathon, I'll have to keep my base up. In hindsight, the fall marathon may have been a bad idea, but at least weather at the race itself should be perfect.

That's enough venting. I'm sure I'll get used to it, the weather's been all over the place this year so it wasn't a steady warming up to allow me to slowly acclimate, and I just hadn't had a run this year yet with anything near this level of humidity. But, still, if any readers out there also loathe running in the heat and humidity, I'd love to hear what you've done to make it more bearable.