I have an arch-enemy, a nemesis, a thorn in my side. While this could be seen as a negative, it's really not. Superman's super-ness springs from not just his powers but his prowess in thwarting the evil plans of Lex Luthor. Batman's life would be pretty boring without the Joker. Being an Eagles fan is just a little more exciting when it's Cowboys week.
My nemesis isn't a supervillain, a neighbor I have to "keep up with", another runner, or a coworker gunning for the same promotions. He's a cuddly eight-pound brown tabby named Higgy the Cat. (Actually, his name is Higgenbaffum, but that's another story.)
Higgy's a nice cat, a friendly, affectionate 13-year old who still in many ways acts like a kitten. He's a genius at getting into things, is very athletic for his age (There's no such thing as "cat years", but a chart at the vet's office says that 13 for a cat is the equivalent of the early 70s for a human), and loves to play and start fights with his brother Pooka and his adopted little sister Elizabeth, who is often terrified of him.
The problem is that Higgy is evil has a different weight-loss strategy than I do. I often strike out at the diet part of diet and exercise, but I make up for it on the exercise. Higgy, on the other hand, has hyperthyroidism, which means that he has a nuclear metabolism that has caused him to lose over half of his body weight over the past three years. (He used to be 18 pounds.) So, he's insatiably hungry very, very often, and when he's not eating he's howling and knocking things over, making it a challenge to work from home. Pooka has the same condition, but since Pooka spends most of his time doing his impression of a throw rug, he's a little more manageable.
I'm happy to report that Higgy is on thyroid medication and is responding very well. But his medication has made him very finicky, and the only cat food he likes is Elizabeth's, which consists of huge, crunchy kibbles that take Higgy forever to eat. Thus, it's hard for him to eat enough to maintain even his reduced weight. To correct this, our vet recommended that we give him baby food and that occasional table scraps are ok, as long as they don't have chocolate, since caffeine is deadly to cats.
So, Higgy gets cake. And cheese. And crackers. And once you give him a crumb, begging turns into all-out frontal assault. But when I made a spinach salad for lunch, I did not expect it to be attacked by the tabby. Since when have cats liked spinach salad? Since when have I liked spinach salad?
(Blurry photo by me)
I fought him off this time. I won the battle, but the war's outcome is still very much in doubt.
Oh yeah, running. I ran 10 miles this morning 1:34:20. Awesome. I'll probably go for a shorter run tomorrow, 8-10 on Friday, and probably take the weekend off.
You may have noticed that I dislike running in hot weather. Therefore, over the last few days when I saw 58 degrees as today's low, I made it my plan to get out for a run this morning. I got ready to go, and checked weather one last time only to find that it already was supposedly 68 degrees. Oops, the low is supposedly tonight.
But, I was up and ready to get out there, so out there I went. I arrived at my starting point at Northeastern High School and found a cloud cover that would not be out of place on Venus, humidity that I suspect was well above 90%, and according to the digital sign at the school, a temperature of 66 degrees. With the sun a distant memory, the heat alone wouldn't have been as bad, but the Amazon-jungle strength humidity made the run unpleasant by about the time I hit mile 2. I pressed on, though, since I had eaten quite heartily the day before and had a big diner breakfast in the near future.
The roads and sidewalks of Manchester were deserted, as other humans had wisely elected to stay in their beds. But I was not alone.
I see slugs on almost all my summer morning runs. I try not to step on them, but they seem pretty innocuous most of the time. But I've NEVER seen a slug like this:
(10oz. hydration bottle for scale)
Anyone who has seen the 1988 horror classic "Slugs" knows that slugs are terrifying predators who can decimate a whole town. So, a few of my high school friends and I are probably safe at least. Since I have seen the film, I took off running. I mean, I was already running, but I started running faster and went farther just to get away my pursuer. In hindsight, I probably needn't have worried. My route crossed the path of Giant Mutant Slug twice, and in the time it took me to run two miles, my slimy nemesis had moved about six inches.
In my escape, I went 10 miles in 1:36:35, bringing me to 38 miles this week, my second highest mileage week ever. I got three 30-milers in in pretty warm, humid conditions, so I think I can work my way up to some 15-16 mile long runs by the end of August, especially if I can find somewhere flatter and shadier than my usual courses.
Run slowly today
But fear not the Summer heat It cannot stop you
It's Friday and I don't have any other post ideas, so here we go again. I wish there was a formula for converting the 10 hot, humid summer miles that I ran this morning into (hopefully) cool, dry Philadelphia Marathon miles. Get right on that, mathematicians. But I'd bet it equals at least 26.3.
I admit, I'm having a bit of writer's block. With no races to write about, no real training plan being followed right now, no dorky new gear to review, I'm edging ever closer to being stuck in an endless boring loop of "I ran X miles in Manchester yesterday and it was really, really disgustingly humid" posts. You may have heard rumors that I dislike running in hot weather.
One of my favorite things to write on this blog is the race reports, so in order to keep some post ideas coming to get me through the Summer Doldrums, I thought I'd look back at some of my favorites over the four years I've been racing and put together a Top Ten List, and then a post, about once a week till I'm finished them, about each of the ones that haven't already been reviewed here.
Before I started compiling my list of races, I wanted to think for a little while (Not too long, this is "Earn Your Donuts" after all.) about what are the criteria of a good race. Personal performance is part of it, to me, but while there are races that are only memorable to me because I had a good run, there's a few others that are among my favorites even though I ran pretty badly. I don't think I even needed to enjoy a race to put it in my Top Ten. The 2010 Broad Street Run was miserable, but it's one of the races I'm most proud of.
Likewise, some races are memorable for their unique settings, conditions of the race, or the pre- or post-race festivities...or even schwag. I chose Shamrock as my first marathon primarily because I thought it would be flat and cold, but I will admit that I love hats and so a finisher's hat was pretty cool giveaway.
In summary, I would say some criteria to consider would be:
- Personal performance (is it a PR, first of its distance, or a good race in adverse conditions)
- Unique setting (did I get to run somewhere interesting that I wouldn't have gotten the chance to otherwise?)
- Race conditions (was it memorable because of gale force winds, torrential rains, or extreme heat, or was it the most beautiful day ever?)
- Overall event (was it memorable because of the post-race party, expo, or even schwag. Was the event so well-organized that it stands out, or hilariously disorganized?)
Some of these, like personal performance, conditions, and setting, might be very tied together in some cases, so this is meant to be just a loose, informal set of criteria that I'll consider as do some recaps of my favorite old races.
But what about you, readers? If you're out there, tell me what makes a race stand out as a good one in your mind.
I've had a lot of dumb ideas lately. Running a marathon, Mud Chasers, running 9+ miles on the hottest morning of the year (until this week, when it's going to be hotter), and on Saturday I had another bad one: Trying out the duathlon training workout my wife was doing in preparation for the Keystone Warrior Memorial Duathlon next Saturday.
Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day, and I ran a very hilly 8.5 miles before work. While this was just a wonderful run, it probably set me up for a tougher time on Saturday, when the plan was to run two miles, bike 10 miles, and run two more miles. My wife told me recently recently that a run then bike or bike then run workout is known as a brick, so hence the title of this post.
I got up Saturday morning with legs still tired from Friday, and with bright sunshine for the first two miles, I quickly felt tired and overheated, but finished the two miles in 17:46, not bad. After the run, the bike ride felt like bliss, since the wind from riding keeps me cooler and drier. My plan was ten miles, but I cut it a mile short due to a little soreness in the right outside of the knee,. I was worried that my IT bands might be acting up again, since I'd read in the Runner's World "Injury Issue" that biking could aggravate ITBS. I finished the 9-mile ride in about 53 minutes. (I had forgotten to reset Garmin)
As I started heading back toward our base camp (my wife's) car, I passed her riding in the other direction, and she warned me to walk a bit before I started running. I found that after my ride, my legs felt so rubbery that I didn't think I could run 10 feet, much less 2 miles. However, after about a two minute walk, my legs felt well enough to try. For the first quarter mile, my legs felt very wobbly, but then seemed to regain their strength. My pace was good, and there was a nice breeze, making it feel more comfortable than the first run...until the last half mile, when I hit the wall. I finished the two miles in 19 minutes.
I'm really happy with how this first brick workout went, so I'm leaning toward signing up for the Catfish Sprint Duathlon on July 10. My challenge will be to squeeze biking in during a very busy June schedule. Meanwhile, I'm trying to keep my base mileage up. I ran 10 miles today, which is farther than I ran at any point last year between May and October, but with the hot weather come back, likely to stay this time, it might be my last double digits for awhile.
In other "news" I signed up for the Dreaded Druid Hills 10K on June 25. This race is supposed to be devastatingly hilly. Between this race, a duathlon, and at some point in June some speed training in preparation for the Harrisburg Mile, it seems like the summer will be filled with some interesting challenges.
Note: I just noticed that this was the 100th post here at EYD. Sorry it's such a boring one. Thanks everybody for reading and hopefully post #200 can be a little more fun.
Perfect June Friday
Go out and earn your donutsIt's time to kick ass
I never said it would be a good haiku. But it's Friday; it's National Donut Day (I wonder who invented that?); I can only hope the weather in your part of the world is as gorgeous as it is in mine today; and I needed a post idea that wouldn't take much time.
Apparently, yesterday was National Running Day. No, I'd never heard of it either. And this is confusing to me since May was apparently National Runner's Month. (Maybe that's the point...a month of revelry leading up to National Running Day?) National Runner's Month seems to have been concocted by Dick's Sporting Goods, which certainly has a financial interest in encouraging people to run, while National Running Day seems to have been started by the New York Road Runners three years ago.
This is only the third year of the holiday, so don't feel bad if you haven't heard of it yet. I'm sure as it grows in popularity Running Day tv specials, celebrations, and sales will start earlier each year, and every mall in America will have a guy in a Bart Yasso or Jeff Galloway suit so that kids can line up to get their picture with him and tell him what they want for National Running Day. Or not.
At any rate, I missed National Running Day. A crazy day at work + legs still feeling extremely worn out from Monday's Insane Humidity Adventure=no running.
Except then I went outside to take the trash out, and realized that for the first time all week the oppressive humidity and heat had abated just a bit. It was still warm, and it was still humid, but it was neither scorchingly hot nor did I feel I needed scuba gear and flippers. After the not so Brian-friendly running weather we've had this week, it felt heavenly.
So at about midnight, I laced up the Supernova Sequences, put on my dorky reflective gear, and headed over to the high school, starting point of my favorite night running route. National Running Middle of the Night Night, a holiday holinight for insomniacs who work from home and are desperate to avoid the heat, was born.
It turned out to be a good idea, but the execution left a little to be desired.
(Light up headgear? Check.)
(Stylish reflective clothing? Check.)
(Charged Garmin batteries? Charged Garmin Batties?)I know that I went 7 miles, since I ran one of my usual routes. I have no idea of my pace, since poor, neglected Garmy died after about a mile. It felt fast, though, which is all I have to go on, and it was a bit liberating to run without obsessively checking my pace, time, and distance every two seconds.
Despite my technical difficulties, it was a nice run and I think that if I'm going to be doing any long runs in July and August, the middle of the night is probably the best time for them from a weather and temperature perspective. I could probably do this once a week. Sacrificing more sleep than that would probably make it a challenge to function as a contributing member of society. (No jokes, please.)
(Blurry photo by me)
