I’m rather enjoying a little controversy that’s brewing within my running circle as to whether our real Ragnar team name is Sole Survivors or Funkstrong. I’m hoping the latter wins. I had originally registered us as Funkstrong before we settled on the consensus alternative but apparently the waivers going out are still saying the old name.
Either way, we’ve got a website now. Eighty percent of success is showing up, and the other twenty is having a dope website*.
MILEAGE UPDATE: March 1-7
Miles to date
Past week
Three week average
Annual pace
Miles to go
60.6
10.0
10.7
335.1
939.4
*not that our POS blog thing is dope, but it’s better than nothing.
I’m in New York for the weekend, ostensibly to see Péter Esterházy speak tomorrow. The snow here isn’t nearly as bad as the news made it out to be – it’s been rather nice weather actually. I went to see Billy Elliot today, which made me notice we’ve covered this ground before
Mileage this week was not impressive. None of the last few weeks has been actually, and I may need to reassess the feasibility of the 1000 mile goal. Extrapolating my current three week average forward for the next ten months leaves me several hundred miles short of the goal. Changes need to be made, somewhere.
I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but YJP’s visit has given me the push I needed. By semi-voluntary consensus our official Ragnar team name is Sole Survivors. Thanks for the suggestion Hondo!
Just FYI, we still have a single solitary open slot on our 12 person Ragnar roster. Email or comment below if you’re interested. The race itself is May 21st-22nd, and the fee is $155 (which will cover our entry fee and van rental).
It’s become clear to me that I won’t reach my annual mileage goal of 1000 miles (#1) without more accountability. Towards that end, I’m bringing back mileage sunday tag.
MILEAGE UPDATE: February 8-14
Miles to date
Past week
Three week average
Annual pace
Miles to go
28.4
12.3
7.1
241.0
971.6
A second idea that I’m playing with is revisiting the same 18 week training goals I used for San Francisco last year. If I started that now, I’d finish June 21st*. So, huh, that’d put me in good position for Kona.
Anyway, regardless of whether or not anyone actually reads this, it’s helpful to have it put in print, as statement of fact. This is what I’m going to do, this is what I’ve done, this is where I am now.
I took CNSMHB to my favorite place when they were visiting way back in week -2 of marathon training. The place itself is a small outcropping of land off the Coastal Train over Mile Rock Beach, roughly here. I can’t recall having been back there since, but dog and I walked down there last night since it was warm and clear and we both needed a mental diversion. The collage above is just about the widest panolab I could get to work without serious distortion in the center of the frame, but it fully cheats the location as there’s incredibly wild coastline both to the left and right. If you turn clear around to 5 o’clock you’ll find the world’s most scenic VA hospital. It’s really a 360 degree experience, worthy of a high-res rotational panorama (or DIY pseudo-equivalent). Within my experience, this small bit of land is the geography for which I am the most grateful.
Mileage: Not a good week for running. Nine miles total. I’ve either been sick and/or having mind problems. Still no fixed goals.
Hope yours was similarly so. Live barking sea lions post-Sunday Streets are infinitely happier than the sad dead ones yesterday. We have a bumper crop this year, and natural selection is an emotionless bitch.
“The animals that develop those skills live to a ripe old age. The others perish.”
I’ve decided to continue post-scripting weekly mileage as an aid to my own flagging internal motivation.
Mileage: Dog & I both had 14 miles this week. No fixed goals at this time.
It’s pretty clear from my split times where I got squashed by the falling asteroid. Oh what you didn’t hear about that part? I would not have died otherwise.
I’ve been watching the Tour de France as of late, a temporary sporting fandom of convenience. The countryside is gorgeous (particularly today in Switzerland). Lance Armstrong pretty much had his hat handed to him at the end of today’s stage by Alberto Contador. After he finished 90-some seconds behind, Armstrong was quoted saying he was “happy to be his domestique”, conceding the Astana leadership to Contador. It’s curious, the internal politics bike racing. They all seem very touchy, getting pissy at other teams for actions that in any other sport are common, expected. It’s beyond strange to me that George Hincapie & co. claim vindictiveness against other teams for not letting him get the yellow jersey in stage 14. The teams he was complaining about (Astana & Garmin) pushed the peloton forward closing the gap on the breakaway group (aka, bike racing during a bike race) and yet this is somehow seen as a serious breach of protocol? Not losing by as much as your competitors would like puts you at fault? Bizarre. Can you imagine a team in a pennant race whining about already eliminated teams trying to upset them? There’s no crying in baseball.
Anyway. My real point today for bringing this up is to point out that when Armstrong ran the Boston Marathon last year he did so in less than 3 hours (2:50:58, a 6:32 split). I will not be running the San Francisco Marathon that fast. Odds are I’ll be somewhere between the 4:15 and 4:30 pace groups, trying to run a 10:00 split (roughly two minutes per mile slower than my half pace). That is my highly nebulous goal. Truth be told, I’ll be thrilled to finish vertically.
MILEAGE UPDATE: week 17 (of 18)
Actual
Goal
Weekly
24.5
24
Three week rolling average
33
31.6
Today was my last (pretty short) long run pre-race. Trying to make it a bit more fun than the usual loop, I did the bridge run again. Sunny on the city side but so foggy to the north that the second tower was invisible even halfway across. Brilliant.
I started today’s long run quite a bit later than I should have due to Sunday afternoon nap issues. While I’m out running with the sun going down it always reminds me of the scene from the unfortunate Chronicles of Riddick where Vin Diesel runs along the surface of the prison planet (Crematoria!) fast enough to stay in the temperate zone between the freezing night side of the planet and the molten day side. You can see it with some bastardized soundtrack here, starting at about 3:20. I am not as fast as Vin Diesel, so it’s pitch black when I get back home.
So anyway, two weeks til race day. This is the first week of the three week taper down – I’m a few miles short due to poor planning yesterday but the dog and I went on a five mile walk up through the Presidio earlier today so I’m not too bothered by it.
MILEAGE UPDATE: week 16 (of 18)
Actual
Goal
Weekly
26.7
32
Three week rolling average
35.3
36.7
I’ve stopped talking about this but we’re getting so close that I’ll link again – if any of you are interested in supporting the fundraiser I’m doing for my marathon you can find it here. The charity is a local group that sponsors running events and classes for kids, ideally to keep them from ending up in bad situations (yes, that was at 11pm, pretty much right here). From here on out I’ll match any donations to this up to my total fundraising goal (of $250).
Dogbrake and I just finished the last run of the week. She’s pretty well over her firework-induced panic attack (too much freedom scares puppies!) while I’m still sore as all hell from yesterday.
The race is three weeks from today. I don’t feel ready.
Twelve miles tonight. Such is the curious state of my mind and body that that distance seems, and is, short. Tonight I ran with the new mixes, which are tagged, bagged* and ready to ship. It’s invigorating to switch to new playlists even if new isn’t entirely new in that I knew a lot of the songs. The highlight of the run came at 10 1/2 when I hit mid-turn up the hill by the Cliff House to a gorgeous expansive pastel sky and had Z’s mix click over to this song.
I hit my quota this week, despite starting a day late. Next week the goal bounces back to 43, then it’s all downhill from there. Almost home.
I’m five miles short this week – I skipped the schedule today due to some physiological & cognitive issues stemming from yesterday’s long run and the subsequent bad influence of my friends. It’s both Father’s Day and the summer solstice but I neither saw my father nor most all of the sun as well. Fan-tastic.
The marathon itself is five short weeks from today. After yesterday’s twenty, I’ve got one more of that length in two weeks, then the downward taper starts. I don’t think I could have finished another six miles yesterday. Basically, I’m going to be swimming to the finish in a sea of lactic acid.
MILEAGE UPDATE: week 13 (of 18)
Actual
Goal
Weekly
38.1
43
Three week rolling average
37.8
41
BTW, the photoblog has reached post #2000! What we lack in quality we make up for in quantity.
As this posts I should be roughly 37,000 feet above midway between where I am and where my puppy is patiently waiting for me.
I was walking around Denver yesterday when I randomly came across the late registration area for the Rocky Mountain Half Marathon. Since my flight wasn’t until this afternoon and I had 13 on the schedule anyway, I went ahead and signed up to run it. The half is really my preferred racing distance – long enough to make you feel like you’ve done something significant, short enough to no leave you a total mess.
The course does some loops around downtown Denver, then runs along and over the river, then up and around Mile High Stadium. The turning point (and peak altitude at ~5400 ft) is a large loop around Sloans Lake (roughly miles 8-10) where you’ve got this broad panoramic view of the (snow-capped!) mountains above the water, then round the far west side a beautiful skyline of the city reflecting on the surface. From there it’s almost anti-climatic, downhill most of the rest of the way home. I’m very pleased the timing on this worked out – the training for San Francisco has been so solitary for the most part that being around a community of runners at a race like this was very energizing. My time wasn’t particularly fast, just under two hours, but I’m really more than OK with that. I’m just pleased to be both injury and high altitude cerebral edema free right now.
The conference I’m at screwed with my schedule a little bit so I’m finishing the week a few miles short. Hopefully since 26 of the miles this week were at altitude that’ll make up for it. If you’re interested in supporting my fundraiser for the San Francisco Marathon (just 6 short weeks from now!) you can hit that up here.
MILEAGE UPDATE: week 12 (of 18)
Actual
Goal
Weekly
31.1
36
Three week rolling average
39.0
40.3
Oh, BTW. The main sponsor of the race today was MapMyRun, which I take has a similar product to Trail Guru (which I thought was fantastic back when we did our Jingle Blast). I’ll investigate a bit more if & when I have an iPhone handy.
Eighteen miles is a long way to run without any euphoria.
Normally I can expect an episode or two of runner’s high during a given long run. For me, it comes in waves of joy, starting in my torso and radiating down through my limbs. It’s energizing, accelerating, anesthetizing, awesome, one of the few perks of long distance training. Unfortunately, as far as highs go it’s is pretty darn short, for me lasting just a minute or so, but even after the initial rush is gone the minor effects are still hanging around, a sort of physical memory. I absolutely love it.
Today though, nothing. My body is having a difficult week, a lot of the physical pleasure of the training process has been replaced by rote artless drudgery. It’s possible that the immediate problem is my frontolimbic system has somehow gotten fried, leaving me with a lifelong risk of … (let’s see) borderline personality disorder. Well that’s just swell.
On the bright side, at 44 miles, the just finished week 11 was the peak week of the training cycle (ergo, mountaineering). None of the subsequent weeks have mileage that high (though there are two 20 mile runs to look forward to). Technically though, it’s all downhill from here.
MILEAGE UPDATE: week 11 (of 18)
Actual
Goal
Weekly
44.3
44
Three week rolling average
38.6
38.7
Here’s the link to my Youth Run4Fun fundraiser thing. I’ll put a match on this week – any donation will be doubled, up to our total goal. So you give $10, that transmongrifies into a mindblowing TWENTY buckaroos. Like magic.
ps. I have new shoes coming – they actually should have been here before today’s run. I just checked the UPS tracker to find this curiosity. A postcard has been sent? What century is this? I look forward to your missive, UPS.
A CORRECT COMPANY OR RECEIVER NAME IS NEEDED FOR DELIVERY. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THIS INFORMATION / A POSTCARD HAS BEEN SENT TO THE RECIPIENT REQUESTING THAT THEY CONTACT UPS.
I realized about halfway through tonight’s (stupid) long run that my total mileage for Saturday and Sunday was going to add up to 26.2 miles exactly. In my mind this numeric phenomenon was accidental but not coincidental. If I hadn’t gotten lost on my route yesterday this awesomeness wouldn’t have happened.
My old people are in town visiting, staying for the rest of the week. We’ve been doing tonsofstuff and quite frankly they’re wearing me out, running me into the ground. I’m going to need a vacation after their vacation.
This week’s marathon training went pretty well, right hamstring tweak excepted. At nine weeks, I’ve officially hit the halfway point of the training cycle. The rest of Team HB (+ assorted other Bylers) ran a half marathon today while I just had my lonely long run in the dark. Around mile 7, I had just about decided no fool in their right mind should be out about in tonight’s bitter cold wind when I saw bunches of people huddled around fourteen different campfires along Ocean Beach, getting an early start on their Memorial Day cookouts. It made me smile.
MILEAGE UPDATE: week 9 (of 18)
Actual
Goal
Weekly
29.9
31
Three week rolling average
32.2
34.7
The Youth Run4Fun fundraiser is still at $135 of $250. I’ll keep the dollar for dollar match for another week.
I didn’t run Bay to Breakers this morning. Yesterday’s long run put my physiology in a foul state of sun sickness and I couldn’t physically bring myself to the expo to register. Instead I did something different and special today, a run up through the Presidio and over the bridge to Marin. I had been wanting to do this particular run since CNSMHB were here but have been in an Ocean Beach rut of late. For bonus points, today’s run roughly matches miles 5 through 12 of the marathon course, which I definitely need to spend more time training on. The hill you know over the enemy you don’t, or so they say. Here’s a course video – the relevant bit is from 4:30 onward.
In more exciting news, not only will my people be coming to SF for the race, but both SMHB and Marc will be actually running the marathon with me this July. And by ‘with’ I really mean ‘lapping me repeatedly before leaving me dizzy in a dust-tornado’. But still, it’s very exciting.
MILEAGE UPDATE: week 8 (of 18)
Actual
Goal
Weekly
37.5
37
Three week rolling average
26.8
33
My Youth Run4Fun fundraiser is still at $135. My goal is $250. While listening to (yet another) NPR fundraiser this morning, I decided I’d re-institute the dollar for dollar match this week, up to the total goal. So if you’ve been lurking and debating donation some nominal amount, this’d be the week.
In the end, I wasn’t able to pull of the trickiest stunt of all, the post-beer run. That idea seemed like a rational, solid, do-able plan when the beer was hypothetical but reality was far more delicious and sedentary. So thanks to Russian River I’m ending the week seven short. WOE! WOE. In reality though, critter and VC and I did hike several miles up Cleland Mountain in Ukiah earlier today (and saw deer! and hawks! and lizards deemed non-photogenic! and -we’re told- a wolf dog!) so I don’t feel that bad about it. Yesterday’s early morning 14 was pure and true and enough penance to absolve me of the rest of the weekend’s shortcomings.
One interesting thing I learned up in winelandia is that they hold the (supposed) California Wine Tasting Championship at Greenwood Ridge Winery each summer. Coincidentally enough, it takes place the last Saturday in July, also known as the day before the San Francisco Marathon. So not so great for me, but double super great for you, potential San Francisco visitor!
Weekly moment of accountability.
MILEAGE UPDATE: week 7 (of 18)
Actual
Goal
Weekly
29.3
36
Three week rolling average
24.6
30.7
Feeling a little down on fundraisers at the moment. Still stuck $115 short of the goal.
We finished shooting, editing and scoring ridiculously early today for our 2009 48 Hours Film Project film “The Most Dangerous Games” today. Everything wrapped up a full two hours early such that we sat around chatting about unrelated topics, which in some ways took a little of the frenzied fun out of the process. That or I’ve become permanently happiness impaired. We got Thiller/Suspense for the first time this year – in all the years I’ve done this haven’t had a genre repeat yet. Despite some intentions I had to at least attempt a liveblog or tweet at bit about the (exhausting) process I did neither – maybe an unexamined creative process works better than one that’s shared publicly. I’ll post the film here after the screening this Thursday. As always, primary props go to mediafriend music & co.
The biggest casualty of the weekend (besides my standards of personal hygiene and possibly my sense of humor) was week 6 of the marathon training process which basically hit the fan. Next week will be better once I’m safely back in healthy California with my running partner. Staying with the futility theme, there was no progress in my Youth Run4Fun fundraiser this week.
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