CJ on his new bike.
Colin is ready for battle.
Archive for December, 2006
Christmas Photos
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006Layin Low Lately
Tuesday, December 26th, 2006I laid low last week. I was a little bit down about the job I ended up with (I really wanted the Criminal Intelligence Job), but I am getting over it. Christmas was chaos. Hopefully I will have some photos from it posted within the next 24 hours.
I did trail runs both Saturday and Sunday, 9 miles Saturday and 5 miles Sunday. I was supposed to go farther but it was a time management thing. I was lucky to go at all. The Saturday run was with a group of people who were all generally faster than me. We ran in the middle fork canyon near Auburn. Their speed may have been at least in part a measure of their sure footedness on some pretty steep and muddy trail. But they did something really unusual, I thought. Despite hardly knowing me at all but for the few minutes we ran together, they stopped and waited for me about every ten minutes or so. When people are that nice, it makes me suspicious!
Sunday I ran by myself at Cronan Ranch. 5 miles is one lap around the inside trail loop. That’s all I had time for. There is no such thing as a bad run at Cronan Ranch. It was absolutely wonderful again.
My New Mission
Tuesday, December 19th, 2006Sometimes you just “know”, you know? I just knew I was going to get the Crime Prevention/Environmental Design sergeant’s job, and I was right. That’s what I get for trying to be a rennaisance cop, I guess. Environmental Design Sergeant.
In a hyper macho environment like a police department, there are plenty of really fit, really bold, really brave people. So in order to set myself apart from the crowd, I have tried to maintain a high level of fitness, boldness, and courageousness, while still patiently thinking things through, remaining tactful in difficult situations, and then appropriately applying knowledge to make good decisions.
A couple years ago, I got a Bronze Medal of Valor for fighting a crazy guy with two knives. At the same award ceremony, I got a Distinguished Service Award for converting the the Sacramento Police Department’s volumes of policy manuals, numerous volumes, into a searchable PDF system.
Fighting the guy with knives was something everyone at the ceremony understood. “How come you didn’t just shoot him,” they asked. It would have been easier. Converting the manual system to PDF’s was like magic to those same people. “How did you ever do that,” they asked?
So now I am rewarded with a seriously cushy desk job, a flexible schedule, and a GREAT boss (more on that later). I will be in a position to learn unique things about how the city will grow in the future and what it will take to police it.
I was hoping for the more tactical Criminal Intelligence Position. It would have been less comfortable, more stressful… more like a job that requires you to keep your finger on the trigger. Oh well. I guess I have created my niche as a nerd… Environmental Design Sergeant. I’ll write opinions about how buildings in Sacramento should be designed to deter crime.
I am going to be seriously tempted to write things like this:
“The proposed facade is unacceptable. Evenly spaced Doric columns are recommended to provide multiple positions of cover for intersecting fields of fire. An open trench, at least 10 meters wide and 3 meters deep, around the entire foundation is required to prevent the approach of vehicle borne IEDs.”
My mission is clear.
Sore Legs = Mental Toughness
Monday, December 18th, 2006Oh man! I am really sore. I went for a trail run at Cronan Ranch yesterday, planning to do 8 miles EASY. Well, I guess I was rather exuberant because this morning my legs feel like I spent yesterday at the first day of high school football practice without doing anything all summer. Deep Muscle Soreness! It started out simple enough, but then it developed in to jumping over a muddy patch and then another and then I’ll turn here and see what’s down there… and then pretty quickly I was farther than I should be. I ended up doing nine miles in shoes that weighed about 2 pounds each, maybe literally, because they were so caked with mud. It was completely dark when I finished, and I was freezin’!
So, no rest for the weary or the wusses on this training schedule. I had to go six miles right away again today. It’s gonna be a miracle if I am able to avoid injury. Anyway, I would not have even thought about running today if I wasn’t looking at doing the 50K. So I took a couple Motrin and wore my HR monitor. Although it was pretty painful in the beginning, I actually did not have a bad run. My HR was better than I expected. I didn’t do trails but I still got a couple hundred feet of climbing and descending between miles 1.5 and 4.5.
I noticed that the back to back runs seemed to open my lungs like they have not been open in years. We’ll see how this goes.
Oh yeah, one other thing. I saw a little brown coyote today. It was the first time I have seen one in the middle of the day. Usually I see them in the morning really early. This guy had his winter coat. He was all fluffed out and looked real healthy. He didn’t want anything to do with me. He looked at me and jammed into the blackberries.
Relentless Forward Motion for 50K
Sunday, December 10th, 2006I am a little bit numb right now. I just registered for the Way Too Cool 50K that I mentioned in yesterday’s post. When I hit the button and saw that I was in, I just sat there for a few mintues contemplating the magnitude of such an undertaking…
What will it feel like to go 50KM in one day? What will it take to get there in a relative state of readiness?
First, I have to get my immune system back on track by getting over the cold that I caught after the CIM. It’s ravaging me right now. My RHR this morning was in the 60’s.
Second, I am hopeful that during this brief period of low activity recovering from the CIM and the cold, my left ankle might do some healing. I torqued it doing some work outside back in late September, and it has been reminding me of that moment ever since. Just when I think it is gone, I’ll go out for a hard run and it will start aching.
Third, hills hills hills. Which I love. As long as I can get my first and second objectives from above in order, I will be happily running a lot of hills very soon.
Way Too Cool 50K is supposed to be quite a social event as well as a race. Which is good because I am going to need some socializing to get me through 31.8 miles.
2007 – What will it mean?
Saturday, December 9th, 2006For me, 2007 will mean turning 39 years old! Oh man, that was hard to write and it is even harder is hard to read. It seems like a good year for a mid life crisis… so here are my goals:
Increase weekly mileage – I have averaged only about 30 miles per week in 2006. Actually, much less than that in the early part of the year. I would like to increase my average weekly mileage with some peak weeks pushing 50 miles. I ran about three days per week this past year. In the first half of 2007, I will increase to four days per week between January and June. In July, I will evaluate my progress and try to go to five days per week. I don’t have it perfectly mapped out, but I’m thinking the four day run week will be Tue/Wed/Thur and one weekend day.
Decrease body fat – I dropped a little bit of body fat in 2006, but only a little. I am carrying about 22 percent right now. And I think I weigh about 192 pounds. I would like to weigh in the 170’s. So my plan is to try to remain even through the holidays and drop one pound per week starting in January. I am not planning on going on a “diet”. I intend to do this by avoiding dietary fat wherever possible, eating plenty of carbs, and a sufficient amount of protein. I don’t think it will be terribly hard to drop some pounds once I get away from fatty foods. They aren’t helping anything anyway. More on fatty foods later…
Relentless Forward Motion for 50 continuous kilometers – At some point in 2007, I want to do a 50KM run. Tomorrow morning, the Way Too Cool 50KM opens registration. The event is March 10th. How convienent for that mid life crisis I mentioned. If I can pull it off in March, I will have it “done” from my list of 2007 goals and that will mean I can do other events in the fall… perhaps things that are more social, like running the Marine Corps Marathon with my wife or something. If I fail to pull it off in March, I will have at least tried and I will have a better persepctive on what it will take to do it in the fall.
What are your goals for 2007? Define them for the whole world to read. I am thinking I will make a page dedicated to the fitness goals of the main contributors to this blog. That way we can remain aware of each others goals and track our progress. We can also look for opportunities to make our goals overlap.
Did you notice I made a page dedicated to Camping Photos a couple weeks ago? You can access it via the sidebar.
Is Marathoning Too Much of a Good Thing for Your Heart?
Saturday, December 9th, 2006This was the title of an interesting article in the New York Times this past week. Check it out.
Cub Scouts
Saturday, December 9th, 2006We had our first Cub Scout Pack Meeting this past Wednesday evening. CJ was floating on air he was so excited about it. In this photo, the Tiger den is about to receive their first award ever.
My CIM, in review
Saturday, December 9th, 2006I don’t think I have quite as much to say about the CIM as Curt did. Having grown up in Sactown, it feels like a very generic 26 miles. The only thing that justifies the expense is that I know it costs a lot to have the roads closed. The shirt and the medal were both very nice this year too.
I finished in 5:12. That should be exciting since it is the “fastest” marathon I have done yet. However, I am not really excited by it. I ran with two friends from work who had never done a marathon before. At the 1/2 way point we were perfectly on pace for a 5 hour run. And we were leaving all the rolling hills behind us. I started to really focus on the idea of finally having a marathon finish time with a “4″ in front of it instead of a “5″! But we just couldn’t pull it off. The rolling hills had already taken a small toll, and so we consequently ran the second half a little slower than the first… another factor may have been the temperature change. The first few hours were under 50 degrees. But it got considerably warmer running in the sun along Fair Oaks Boulevard. It was so much warmer that I ditched my Camelback, handing it off to a friend along the course.
I like knowing what I will feel like at the finish. The first two marathons, I had alot of angst about how bad I would feel at the finish. This time I had a benchmark in my mind and so it wasn’t such a big deal. I felt worse than I felt at the end of the Marine Corps and much better than I felt at the end of last year’s CIM. Last year I thought I would die walking to the car. This year, I embraced that walk as a chance to cool down and stretch a little.
The day after…. I don’t remember feeling anything except horrible after the CIM last year. Conversely, I can say that I felt euphoric the day after the MCM and this years CIM. Full on endorphin burn. Unfortunately, I have a perfect record of getting sick about the third day after every one of them. Last year’s CIM, I caught a cold. After the MCM, I got a really bad stomach flu. This year’s CIM, another cold. I think it may be a matter of catching whatever I get exposed to during a time when my immune system is hammered. Erin had a cold this year. And about two nights after the CIM, I was sleeping like a friggin rock, when I woke up and found my face about six inches from hers, getting the full blast of her cold for who knows how long. By the time I went to bed the next night, I was fully engulfed with the cold. So that is definitely something that I would like to figure out- how to get through the period of reduced immunity without catching anything. Maybe I need to wear a surgical mask!
It’s not about the bike
Tuesday, December 5th, 2006(Hmm, I just can’t remember who wrote that 
As you may know, when the double centuries are winding down each year I tend to don my running shoes in peparation for the California International Marathon on the first Sunday of December. This year was no different though I was dealt an extra adversity when my coworker, who was supposed to teach some classes in Italy, tried to see if his Geo-Metro could withstand the onslaught of a full-sized SUV. (He lived and I did the teaching in Italy.) Rather than let jet leg excuse me from running the CIM, I opted to overlook the extra long 25 hour day with 12 hours spent in coach class seating the day before the CIM. Had I whimped out, I would need to change my favorite movie quote from Ed Harris’ Apollo 13 line “Failure is not an option” to something much less manly!
Here’s a brief overview of my time leading up to the CIM.
- Run 19, 23, and 25 miles on consecutive Sundays until three weeks before CIM
- 2 weeks to go, try in vain to keep up with cycling buddies on rolling 70 mile ride
- 1 week to go, spend 20+ hours traveling to Milan, Italy in coach class
- Less than 1 week, eat too much cheese, drink way way too much wine, and party past midnight every night with the European team composed of 4 Germans, 2 Frechman, 2 Italians, 1 Belgian, 2 Brits, 1 Swede, and 1 Spanaird.
- 36 hrs to go: Rise and shine 4am Italy time. Arrive home at Midnight (Italy time.)
- 11 hrs to go: Finally sleep after 25 hours, give or take some deep rest periods on the plane.
- 3 hrs to go: Best night sleep I could imagine before an event, but biological clock says I’ve slept half the day away, because it’s 2pm in Italy.
- 7am Sunday December 3rd, 2006. Go time!
At the 37 degree start my brother and I used hats, gloves, and sweaters we could throw away. A secret learned from the death riders this year. All of the extra clothing kept us warm for the 35 minutes from the car to the 7am start time and for the first few miles of the race, after which they were ditched.
As the crowds of people slowly spread out at the start I found myself running from behind the 4hr 15 minute pace group up to the 3hr 30minute pace group. However, a brief pit stop at mile 10 quickly repositioned me to the 3hr 35 minute group , who should have been running 8:20 miles. However, this Cliff Shot pacer was going a bit fast (explaining how a minute pit stop resulted in a reposition to the previous group) and given how long it takes the 4000 strong crowd to pass over the starting line, my watch said I was no more than 1 minute off the 3hr 30 minute pace through the half way point.
My nutrition for this event was similar to what I would do in cycling. The main difference is that more calories are burned running for 3.5 hours than bicycling 3.5 hours. So, I used a full servering of Perpetum shortly after my 4am wake up, followed by 1/3 cup of oatmeal. Seconds before the 7am start I did another full serving of Perptum. Then I carried a small Cliffbar, jelly beans, Endurolytes, a shot vial with 4 shots of Hammer Gel and vitamin I. At the aid stations I only supplemented with water. (I carried no fluid.) At about mile 17 Scott McKinney took my arm warmers and shot vial while supplying another full serving of Perpetum. Being a self reported camel, I downed the nutrition and returned the bottle to Scott.
Shortly after the pit stop and almost an hour before meeting Scott is where the real rolling hills of this run start. It’s also where my heart rate went up and never came down. I seriously doubt I would have made it to the end without the re-supply by Scott exactly where it happened. Prior to the pit stop my heart rate had stayed below 80% which kept me mostly in the 140 bpms. Near the pit stop it went over 85% and stayed mostly between 87% and 92% for the rest of the run. I’m not certain why this happened as I did not feel as though more effort was happening until many miles and hours later. To put it in bicycling perspective: On the Devil Mountain Double in May, I had my hardest hour of climbing on Mt. Diablo where my average heart rate was above 170 bpm. On this CIM, I ran for about 2.5 hours with an average near 170 bpm. Prior to this event, I would not have believed I could withstand an average above 165 for 2.5 hrs.
At mile 18 I ran through the point where I first walked last year with a smile on my face. Then came the infamous “Wall” at mile 20. When I ran through it, I punched the air and honestly felt a mental lifting (perhaps it was a rush from the oranges and bananas I had just eaten) but I had no desire to walk at that point. However, it was about this time that the 3:35 pacer started to gap me, though I was able to see him until mile 22 where I did my first 9 minute mile. In 2005 I walked more than I anticipated for the whole event before I even got to mile 20.
With 4.2 miles remaining and the goal of 3hr and 30 minutes clearly out of reach my new goal was to make certain that the 3:40 minute pace group did not pass me. That I only lost 2 minutes to the 3:35 pacer can only be attributed to my personal audience, both the mobile audience, in the form of Scott McKinney and his son Spencer, who followed the course on their bikes all the way to the finish from mile 17 as well as my wife, daughter, and son whose faces with 0.2 miles to go produced my fastest pace of the day. In the end I missed 3:30 but I beat my time from last year by almost exactly 30 seconds per mile and I completed a marathon the day after flying home from Italy!
While I said this was “not about the bike” I have to say the calls I received from my biking buddies on Saturday night, to make certain I was home and ready to run, really helped remove the doubts and gave me a mental boost. And though it’s not about the bike, the support I received from my double century buddy Scott McKinney was quack cyclist quality!
Since this is not about the bike, I also won’t mention that on the very next ride after the CIM, I discovered my new 2006 Tete de Course frame was broken in the exact same place as the frame that broke in February. I’ll still say 2006 was a great year even if I do end up getting two “new” bikes this year.
Initial Result of CIM
Monday, December 4th, 2006I ran about 5 hours 11 minutes. I thought I could bust 5 hours but it just didn’t happen. Gotta shed some fat! Much more on how it went tomorrow or later in the week.
And before you know it…
Friday, December 1st, 2006Five weeks have passed and it realy is time to run the California International Marathon. Everyone said that I shouldn’t do much in between the two marathons, and so I haven’t. The farthest I have run is twelve miles two weeks ago. I have actually lost weight since the MCM…. don’t know what that means… actually, I know it means one thing. I am really feeling the cold this year like I haven’t felt it in years!
This Sunday at 7am I’ll be standing at the start line in front of Folsom Dam singing that oldee, but goodee…. “Hoo yaa, hoo yaa, hoo yaa, hey! Today’s gonna be another easy day!”
