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By BrianFlash, on September 30th, 2009
I obsess over my Garmin data. I never do any kind of crosstraining at all. So I thought I’d try to remedy my lack of crosstraining by coming up with a way to turn work into play. So my spectacular idea was to mow my yard while wearing the big G! That way I can collect all the data I need, claim that the mowing is a crosstraining activity, and still get some cool data out of it.
My yard is a magical 1/4 acre that has my house, driveway, patio, planting beds, and a pine tree forest. So the actual space that needs to be mowed is quite a bit less then that. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to mow (not counting the trimming which I do only sporadically and halfheartedly to the eternal horror of my neighbors).
Here’s the actual Garmin readout:
My cross training covered .97 miles in 32:21, for an average per mile pace of 33:13. Not very impressive. I wasn’t wearing my heart rate monitor but I suspect that it stayed well below the level where I would get any aerobic benefit. Since I can’t claim mowing as an exercise, I should just outsource it next year. The lawn service couldn’t really do a more irregular job growing grass then I do anyway and that leaves more time for my primary activity which is getting ready to win an Olympic gold medal in the 5000 meters.
By BrianFlash, on September 28th, 2009
Assembled Body Parts,
I want to express my disappointment at the effort you have put forth since the marathon nine days ago. I understand that I asked a lot of you that day (actually more then you were capable of delivering) and you did your best. I have no issues with your effort on that day. I mean we destroyed our personal best in the marathon by over thirty minutes! Who can complain about that? My problem is with the effort you have put forth since then.
I gave you guys three full days to rest before asking you to step it up and do a nice easy recovery run. You responded with little enthusiasm, turning in a nine minute per mile pace, but complaining during every step of the way. OK, I thought, maybe I expected too much too soon. You did run 26.2 miles (although, to be fair, you only ran 21 and walked and shambled the rest). So I waited three more days before heading out for our planned long run around Forest Park. I think I was pretty clear about the plan – three laps around the park for a total of 17 miles. You started well, but at the 12 mile mark you decided the plan was for 12 miles and that’s all you were going to go. We did a decent 9:10 pace, but your refusal to continue really threw me for a loop. But, rather then enforcing my will upon you, I decided not to push the issue.
In order to help motivate you, I directed you to a discussion on the Comrades Marathon, held at the Ghisallo Running Store in University City. A young guy who finished 177th in Comrades this year (in 6:52) talked about the glories of the race. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and expected that you would get the hint and work on getting ready for the next phase of training. But you continued slumping around here like Eeyore, making me miserable.
I’m not taking time off and my performance is just fine. Remember the trivia night we attended on Friday? Team Flash, along with Dan, Babs, Mayhem, and Kelly got together to showcase our skills. Conrad Hilton! Sink! Michael McDonald! Juicy Pear! At the end of the night we walked away with the championship, dispatching the next closest team by six points. Did I go thru the competition not giving my all? No way! And I let you guys rest the entire evening (except for the 10 foot walk to the scorer’s table at the end of each round to turn in our answer sheets).
For a little something right in your wheelhouse, I thought we’d go out on Sunday and play a little Vintage Base Ball. You so loved playing in the past and I thought this would be a nice treat for you that didn’t solely involve running. So we played a double header with our old ball mates in Mexico, MO for their Walk Back In Time Festival. It was fun for sure, but I was a little disappointed at the results. We used to be legendary at the plate and fairly sure handed (if a bit indifferent) on defense. While we did get some big hits, our overall batting day was mediocre and in the field…well, I think the less said about that, the better.
And now today, I’m hearing complaints from the back, both legs, you arms and feet, and other body parts that rarely bitch about anything. Guys, we used to play 40+ games a year and two games in perfect weather on Sunday lead to this?! I’m having a hard time buying it. Tonight we went on another three mile recovery run and it took my entire force of personality to get you guys on the road. We ran the miles in 28 minutes – I can’t be much easier on you.
Maybe you are letting your marathon performance drag you down. You shouldn’t – we did well that day. But I’m not going easy on you anymore. We’ve got a lot to get ready for in the next few weeks: a costumed 10K with the entire quadrile of Team Flash, a 26.2 mile jaunt around the capital for the Marine Corps in general, and Kathy’s Dad, in particular, and; the main race to peak for; a 5K with the Thanksgiving Turkeys that I’ve pledged to finish in less then 20 minutes. That’s a demanding schedule and one where I need full effort from all of you.
So, here’s the plan: Mondays – easy recovery run. Wednesdays – tempo runs. Thursdays – Interval training. Saturdays – long runs. That’s only four days a week that I need your serious efforts, leaving the remaining three days for you to rest. But I’m expecting your all these workouts. We need the speed for the 5K and the endurance for the marathon. You guys are going to have to give 100% for the next eight weeks. Then I’ll give you a little time off before we start getting ready for the Goofy Challenge.
Sincerely,
Brain
By JasonFlash, on September 27th, 2009
Last week in Forest Park I was able to experience some very unusual musical entertainment during my easy 3 mile run. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was performing a free concert to kick off the 2009 Forest Park Balloon Races. Right next to the running path was a full blown 100 member orchestra belting out Bach and Beethoven tunes – needless to say I took off my I pod. Normally I would not put attending the symphony very high on my list of fun things to do on a Wednesday night. This is not because I don’t appreciate the music, far from it I really enjoy the pulsing sounds of a symphony. The reason I don’t like attending is because You Tube has reduced my attention span to 3 minutes. I can barely sit through the latest CGI effects laden Jerry Bruckheimer movie, let alone a 2 hour concert with nothing to watch but violinists and castanet musicians. However, as motivational running music goes a live symphony is hard to beat.
Does anyone know of a marathon where they bring out an full blown symphony orchestra? I know they have someone playing a grand piano on the Big Sur Marathon course, but the effect cannot quite be the same.
On the training front the Marine Corps marathon is only a few short weeks away. Saturday I completed a 20 mile long run in 3:35 – a pace of 10:46 per mile, which is not bad for a training run. If I can get a couple more of these done over the next 2 weekends I will be feeling strong when it is time to head to DC for the Marine Corps Marathon.
By JasonFlash, on September 20th, 2009
The US Air Force knows how to kick off a race. Just before the start a pair of F16s flew low over the starting line on full after burners – the ground shook as they thundered overhead and the gathered runners roared. Then a howitzer went off shaking the crowd and almost four thousand runners surged towards the starting line. The planes were not a surprise, but who knew the Air Force had artillery?
This half marathon was a training run for me. In order to get in my 16 mile long run I spent 30 minutes prior to the race running in circles around the parking lot – an easy pre race 3 mile warm up. I ran the 13 miles of the half as my most well supported long run ever. As usual, I started too fast and finished too slow – total half time was just under 2:15. Not terrible considering I ran an extra 3 miles prior to the race.
In addition to the start, other highlights from the race:
- Post race food was outstanding – free chocolate milk and pizza! I am really surprised I did not throw up after 4 chocolate milks, but it was oh so good.
All in all it was a solid, well run event.
- Water stops were top notch. My favorite was the one with the Burma Shave signs things like – “That guy whose running just behind…Is he lonely or just blind?”. I have never seen so much spirit, and such well stocked stations.
- The course was mostly flat, but there was extremely limited crowd support. This is because the majority of the race was on Wright-Patterson Air force base. Probably one of the few races to go by a live firing range and the “War Fighter Training Center”. The other highlight was a trip through the worlds first airport – now a grassy field.
By BrianFlash, on September 20th, 2009
Jason, Kathy, and I made the trek to Dayton, Ohio for the USAF Marathon. At 6:00 AM Friday, I stopped the red luxury yacht at Jason’s condo and loaded him up. We then made a six hour driving journey across Illinois and Indiana before arriving at the United States Air Force Museum. While driving isn’t exactly my favorite way to get someplace, having a nearly new automobile makes the trip quite a bit more palatable!
We toured the museum which was quite impressive. There are three complete hangers connected together filled to the brim with planes. Any US Air Force plane you have an interest in from the Wright Brothers plane to the modern day is represented along with planes from other nations. Some of the highlights of the museum include the B2 Stealth Bomber, an SR71, a stealth fighter, all the famous WWI and WWII planes, along with the actual plane that dropped the second atomic bomb. This was a great visit and I would definitely go back again. The only somewhat odd thing was that there is a giant statue of Icarus in the museum lobby. This seems like a strange choice, but it did foreshadow my race experience!
Dayton also has tons of ‘origins of aviation’ sights because of the whole Wright brothers thing. We didin’t get a chance to tour them. Somehow, we lost an hour when we traveled to Ohio. I’m not quite sure what happened, but all the clocks there were an hour ahead of my watch. Crazy. But we had time to hit the race expo and got there just before the after work crowd. No problems picking up race packets or shirts. The expo was small, but Nestle was giving away free chocolate milk so all was right with the world. We then hit a pasta place for an evening carbo loading meal and off to our hotel rooms.
Saturday morning we had a quick breakfast at the hotel and then headed over to the race. We were running just a hair late and by the time we parked, got the shuttle to the start and I walked over to the start it was time to go. I’m about 100 yards from the start and two F16s came streaking over! Then the gun went off. But we were chipped timed so I wasn’t too worried – I just jumped into the crowd and crossed the start about two minutes after the gun went off. My first couple miles were a bit below target pace because of the people dodging, but I was feeling good. By mile 5 I was 67 seconds below my 8:23 pace target. And feeling good.
Just past mile 9, we left the base and ran thru the town of Fairborn. Talk about a major pick-me-up! It seemed like the entire town came out to root for the runners. They had an absolutely massive water, gatoraid, sponge stop with cheerleaders, the high school band, etc. They put up their own ‘wall of sound’ for two miles. It was great! Actually, the water stops were incredible for this race in general. The race organizers have a contest for the runners’ favorite water stop each year, so the organizations that run the water stations go all out to make themselves memorable. Fairborn gets my #1 vote, but the Gilligan’s Island themed station and the engineers all dressed as Dilbert were also very good. GUs, orange wedges, and sponges were handed out regularly which was really appreciated. At 13.1, my time was 1:48:30 – 90 seconds better then a 3:40 pace. At this point I pretty much knew that 3:40 wasn’t going to happen – I was feeling a little weary and I made a conscious effort to slow down a bit.
Miles 14-20 were steady – steadily increasing in pace that is. My splits went from 8:44 to 9:30 (with a 10:00 sprinkled in there when I had to make a lightning fast porta john pit stop). At mile 20, I did a quick calculation and determined there was no way I was going to miss my 4 hour target. If I could run 10 minute miles, I would come in at 3:52. This may have been my last reasonably logical math calculation.
Mile 21 was a 10 minute mile. Then I ran into the WALL. Wow. I didn’t run into the wall in my previous two marathons. The first of which I limped on a bad IT band for 12 miles so I couldn’t go fast enough to hit the wall and the second one that I ran with Jason slow enough that I didn’t find the wall. This race I found it. Mile 22 – 11:28, mile 23 – 13:34:, mile 24 – 12:41. During mile 25 the four hour pace team blew past me. I started running with them, but only lasted about a quarter mile. Then they went off in the distance. Those last five miles lasted forever – I walked a decent portion of it and zombie shambled the rest. I ended up crossing the line in 4:06:04, a very respectable time and a new PR by more then 33 minutes but there is still some disappointment because I could have done better.
What did I learn? My nutrition and hydration were fine – no issues there. Ego was the issue. Like Icarus, I ignored the potential danger. I just went out too fast (at least too fast given my relatively low number of training miles). My legs ran out of energy and I bonked. Obviously I didn’t respect the distance. I always figured that the wall was for other runners, bonking was for other runners. So I guess that I’m not invincible. But it isn’t all bad. I’ve left myself plenty of room for improvement in the next marathon I run for time (probably Little Rock next March).
The race overall was excellent. There was so much Air Force brass at the finish I was a little blinded. A flock of colonels were handing out medals, including the officer who gave me my medal and shook my hand. I had just enough energy to thank him for his service. There were also one and two star generals and a four star brightening up the joint! Having these guys out there giving out the medals was really fantastic. Post race food included pizza, bananas, chocolate milk, peanut butter crackers, etc. but I couldn’t handle anything but the drinks – the solid food had no appeal for me. I need a race that offers watermelon slices!
Jason and Kathy ran solid half marathon training runs – I’ll leave it to Jason to talk about his impressions, but we were able to shower and then get back to Missouri before 8 PM Saturday night. So a whirlwind weekend attack onto Ohio left the state conquered by Team Flash!
By KathyFlash, on September 17th, 2009
 I am “blessed” with long flat narrow feet; overpronator extraordinaire. Over achieving in pronation is not on my list of current goals but, feet being feet, they have a mind of their own. As a child, I had to wear the most awful looking shoes to accommodate the custom orthotics created to support my flat beauties. I don’t recall my feet ever hurting, but none the less, I was required to wear the darn supports. Maybe that explains why as an adult female, I don’t have the normal female shoe hound syndrome.
I blame my latest injury on my fallen arches. I started developing pain around my ankles as I ramped up miles about a month ago. Being a good problem solver and believing that most doctors probably use the internet anyway to find answers to their patient’s problems, I enthusiastically began my internet research on “ankle pain after running”. Well, you get answers like “most common” problem of runners who are over-training, running to much, etc. etc. blah, blah, blah. Jeez I knew that, just tell me the cure; the instant fix. Sadly, only the Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation (RICE) remedy kept popping up.
After waiting patiently for hours (actually my time Googling the problem), the doctor (me) diagnosed my problem as Posterior Tibial Tendonitis. What a relief, I now had a name for the cursed condition. Since surgery seemed too extreme, and just plain rest seemed too simple, my doctor (me) recommended RICE along with therapy. My physical therapist (me) recommended a daily regimen of intense heel raises and calf stretches. I also purchased every type of ankle support offered at Wally World and wore them daily to work. I am happy to report that after a week and a half the pain, swelling, and general discomfort are gone baby gone!
Special thanks to my doctor and therapist for their extreme patience in a time of need.
By JasonFlash, on September 16th, 2009
The Lewis and Clark Marathon is an exceptionally well run set of races. What do you expect, the guy who runs it is an aerospace engineer by training. If you can get whatever kind of crazy degree that allows you to be an aerospace engineer you should be more than qualified to put on a marathon. After all, all you really need to do is have enough port-o-lets, give out some free water and fire off the starting gun on time. Well maybe it is not that easy as anyone who has participated in a few races can tell you they are not all so well put together.
Here are the highlights:
1 – The race bib pick up was available by mail. No need to be forced to attend the expo to get your number, for a few bucks they send it right to your door. What could be more convenient? This great but often missing feature makes it much more convenient to run races not located in your home town.
2- Banana popsicles and fresh baked sweet rolls at the finish. Simply the best post race food ever.
3- A great band, and one free beer each! Can someone tell me which race I can run that has all you can drink after? I am tired of the one beer limit. In any event the band was good, they played all the covers you would want to hear on a Sunday morning in the park.
4- 2 of the best miles you could hope to find in a half marathon – the climb over the Missouri River on the Blanchette bridge and mile 10 through the corn and soybean fields just before the home stretch.
On top of all that, the course is mostly flat, has a solid crowd of around 6,000 and they played the theme from Chariots of Fire with the starting gun. All in all it was a great event. I nailed my half marathon PR with a 2:04:33 – I am not there yet but I plan to break the 2 hour barrier in the next 12 months.
By BrianFlash, on September 16th, 2009
3 more miles tonight at an 8:36 pace. All parts are operating at maximum efficiency. Hopefully the 6.5 hour car ride to Dayton won’t throw a proverbial wrench in my finely tuned running machine. But as I said yesterday, I’m challenging the gods of fate to screw up this marathon for me. I’m pretty sure nothing can go wrong at this point…
Team Flash’s recent confidence building races have led to a couple more events being added to the 2009 schedule.
On October 19th, the first annual Halloween 10K is being held by the Go! St. Louis organization. I guess no one told them that Halloween was a little later in the month. Maybe they’ll get a little closer next year. Costumes are optional but encouraged so Team Flash is going to participate in full regalia. This race will be the weekend before the Marine Corps Marathon so we’ll definitely be taking it easy and enjoying ourselves. Our costumes are TBA so if you want to see what we’re wearing you’ll have to come on down. Or wait for the inevitable race report with pictures. I expect a blog promotion to be incorporated into at least one of our costumes. Watch the internets traffic count explode!
The second event is the big one, the Chesterfield Turkey Trot 5K, on Thanksgiving morning. This is the 27th year (wow!) of this race. It draws a huge competitive crowd. 2600 runners ran last year, and the race was won by someone going sub 15 minutes. In order to continue the linear improvement toward an eventual Olympic Gold Medal, my target time is 20:04. But since that is so close to 20 minutes anyway, I’m just shooting for sub 20. 19:59 would be a 71 second improvement from my last PR. Impossible you say!? Maybe, but that’s what I’m shooting for so who knows. With a 20 minute time, I would have only placed seventh in my age group last year. I need to get to Nitmos-like speed for 2010 to beat these old guys they pit me against.
For 2010 we’ve added the Little Rock Marathon in early March (Arkansas falls to the Team Flash juggernaut). But I’d like to add a race in April that is between 50K and 50 miles (closer to 50K) and in a nearby state. I haven’t found one yet but I think Jason and I need that little extra distance to help us get ready for Comrades. I could also easily add an early February marathon but that somewhat depends on the bounceback from the Goofy Challenge in Disneyworld. You might consider that I’m trying to squeeze in too many races, but if I’m going to do six continents and 50 states before I expire, I need to pick up the pace a bit! Maybe that’s why Jason thinks I’m a bad influence on the rest of the team. They just want to have some fun with this running thing and I have delusions of grandeur!
By BrianFlash, on September 15th, 2009
I went out on a nice little 3 mile run this evening (8:55 pace, Avg HR 147, very easy effort) just making sure the legs are ready to go for the USAF Marathon this Saturday. All my parts seem to be in working order so I’m ready to go. I’ll probably do another 3 mile easy run either tomorrow or Thursday and declare myself ready to go.
I had no post race soreness after my 1:52 half and it really was a pretty easy effort. My confidence level on breaking 4:00 hours for the marathon is high. In fact, it is so high I believe there is basically no way I can miss it (Jinx God come on down – I’m officially challenging you to come up with a way to screw this up). Probably the only way I blow it is to go out way too fast and then bonk in the back half of the race (or we could have a weather disaster but the United States Weather Service doesn’t think we will). So I’ve put together a race plan that has the potential to blow all my energy in the first 18 miles and then lead to an epic collapse!
It turns out that 3:40 is a cutoff time for corral placement for the Comrades Marathon. I have this crazy goal to finish sub 9 hours for Comrades (Bill Rowan medal!). The medals are awarded based on gun time, so I want to be able to start as close to the front of the race as possible so I don’t lose too much time just getting to the start line. So I want that sub 3:40 marathon to get into corral C. So here is my USAF marathon race plan: I’m going to run 8:20 per mile for 26.2 miles. That would get me to the finish in 3:38:24, give or take a second or two. There is a bonking risk associated with this plan. I’ve only done one 20 mile training run for this marathon and that was at a 9:10 pace. So I could expend all my energy keeping 8:20 and then collapse like an explosives planted EDF building on Red Faction Guerrilla. But I can’t help myself.
One other major factor fueling my confidence is that the McMillan Running Calculator predicts a 3:26 marathon time based on my 21:10 5K. While I know I haven’t put in enough road miles to give me the endurance to run 3:26, 3:40 is more then 30 seconds per mile slower. At this point with cool weather I feel I can run at 9:00/mile almost forever, so I ought to be able to suck it up and do 8:20 for a measily 26.2. Besides, I’ll be running in support of Kathy for the Marine Corps Marathon so that will be an easy pace and I have plenty of time to rest for the Goofy Challenge in early January. So I might as well go all out here and now!
By BrianFlash, on September 13th, 2009
Early Sunday morning Team Flash congregated on the parking lot of the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (that sounds so strange – it was the Riverport Amphitheater for years before people found out they could sell the naming rights for stadia). I should say most of Team Flash congregated – our core training guru Rocio stayed home. Who can blame her? Rooting for a bunch of middle of the pack runners can’t be that fun. We agreed to meet at the 10 minute pace sign and Kathy and I walked up to find Jason already in position. It is kind of amazing how long he can hold the ‘runners set’ position – we were there about 30 minutes prior to gun.
The weather was perfect, unlike last year’s legendary race. That race, which Kathy and I signed up for, was host to Hurricane Ike. To be fair, Ike was already reduced to a tropical depression at that point, but he still dropped six inches of rain on the course forcing the marathon and half marathon to be shortened to 10 miles due to course flooding and trees being down. For our part, we stood out in the driving rain and got completely frozen. The rain was coming down so hard that it hurt! We then headed back to our vehicle before the race started. Kathy suffered her heart attack about a month later so our abandoning of the race worked out for the best. It wouldn’t have been good if that happened during that race! Sunny skies and 65 degrees ensured this race would go off without a hitch.
Jason and Kathy were both running this race with PRs in mind. My goal was to run a nice solid tempo run in preparation for my sub 4 hour marathon attempt next weekend in Dayton, Ohio. For the start, I moved up near the 3:50 marathon pace group and Jason joined the 4:15 marathon pacers. Kathy stayed put in the 10 minute mile group.
When the gun went off (right on time) I started running (Duh). We had a well organized serpentine start corral and the runners’ compliance with the estimated pace times was really solid. I wasn’t dodging walkers or held up at all. It doesn’t hurt that this race is organized by the owners of Fleet Feet and they do everything with the runners in mind. The route is on nice wide roads, there are plenty of marshals out on the course, and the mile markers are actually positioned in the right spots. Plenty of water and Gu drink spots (and oranges for the marathoners out on the course).
My race went absolutely perfectly. I held pace at 8:32 per mile for the route with an average heart rate of 168. That is right at 90% effort for me. It wasn’t exactly easy for me to restrain myself. When girls pass me, I want to pass them back, thereby unchicing myself. But I held back, knowing I needed to keep it in reserve for next weekend. Actually my pace was a bit slower then 8:32 for the first 10 miles, but I felt so good I thought I’d pick it up for the last three miles. The last 3 and change were at an 8:19 pace. I ended up breaking the theoretical tape at 1:51:43. This race definitely built up my confidence for USAF marathon next weekend.
I hit the food tent and then hung around the finish waiting for Jason and Kathy to come in. I never did see either of them finish, so then turned into the crowd to try and find them. Thru some miracle they spotted me almost immediately! It turns out I missed Jason because he finished before I got back over to the finish. He came in with a new PR of 2:04:33! Somehow though, I missed Kathy finishing. She waltzed in with a new PR of 2:12:28. Overall Team Flash continued to dominate our own goals.
The post race food was very good – pretty much all the normal post race goodies. Cookies, oranges, bananas, granola bars, water, sports drink, cinnamon raisin rolls, and the creme de la creme, frozen banana flavored popsicles! The food lines were short and moved quickly, the bag pickup appeared to be extremely well organized (even though we didn’t take advantage of it), the shuttle buses taking runners back to the start were numerous and efficient, the free beer was quickly and easily obtainable, and the post race band was very servicable. All in all, a very well run race.
I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who turned out to cheer during the race. The first part of the course goes thru an industrial park, but we still had supporters in some of those areas. And the finish was packed to the gills with cheering running groupies. So nothing to complain about there! I’d highly recommend this race to someone looking for a St. Louis area marathon or half marathon. It isn’t as large as the Go! St. Louis race, but there were roughly 4500 halvers and 700 marathoners participating so it isn’t a small race. The course is nice and flat and you get to run over the Missouri River which is pretty cool.
Thanks to Fleet Feet for putting on a great race, to my fellow Team Flash members for rocking this course with me, and to a college friend for saying hello after spotting us during the finish line festivities. Good to see you Beth and keep running!
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