Hanging with the leader pack

The nice weather is back so this weekend I went outside for a change.  I did one of my usual 6 mile loops.  On the way back, I noticed I was being passed by an inordinately large number of very fast runners.  Eventually I figured out I was on the early part of the course for the Frozen Half, the first long distance race of the year.  They were fast and on mile 1-2, while I am slow and on mile 4-5.  The true leader pack streaked by but I was able to hold it together after the first 20 runners or so and stay up with the second wave.  Decent weather but a bit icy if you are doing this for real.  Glad I could make the right turn by my apartment, catch my breath and jog it in.

7. Don't forget the off-season

Was talking with a friend this weekend. He had a hard year, finishing at the end of November. Like me, he planned to start January 1 preparing for Boston, but has found it slow getting going this month. He is just now getting in the swing of training hard. It's only an N of 2, but this guy needed about 2 months to get over last year, and that's about what I had from the end of October to 1/1. My lesson from this is that 2 months off is a without which not of getting a good start on the next year's program.

Ever run Thoedore Roosevelt Island?

I was staying at the Hotel Palomar in beautiful downtown Roslyn and look a look at the running map that the hotel had at the front desk.  The combination of a head cold and an early morning symposium at George Mason prevented me from going out on Thursday morning but I realized that I have never run on Teddy Roosevelt Island in the middle of the Potomac.  Run by it on both sides of the river but never focused on the fact that you can go on it and around it.  Is there anything there?  Should it be part of the course for the Race for Competition given his trust busting fame? 

Wonder how I've never heard of this before

My sister-i-l A__ shared this story with me. Amazing.

6. Run long when the sun shines

Spencer has been dealing with Chicago in winter. DC hasn't been great either, though I would guess it's a lot nicer than there. But every so often a day comes along . . .

Today is 60 degrees with clear skies. It's supposed to get wet and cool starting tomorrow. My running obligations this week include a longer (~75') run, a tempo run, a hill workout, and a long run. Today was supposed to be the tempo: quick warmup, 25' at a pace faster than I feel like going, then a jog home.

But that leaves 75' cruising for a less pleasant day. Nobody will notice if I rearrange my schedule, will they? I'm going to try the Utah Ave. to Western to Oregon loop that D__ and I found the other weekend. Then a trail through the woods at dusk to Beach Drive and back south. Whether I come home by way of Nebraska or past the Rock Creek stables depends on just how pleasant it is. I'm guessing I take the long way, but time will tell.

Oh the weather outside is frightful

The fantasy of a soft short winter has been crushed by 4-8 inches of snow and howling winds.  My Saturday run with the BOMF running group will probably morph into a short gym session in my building's work out room.  On the other hand, I signed up for my first 2012 race, the March 25th Shamrock Shuffle where I will receive either a C or B Corral seeding based on last year's result and the other race results I submitted (thank you ATlinks!). 

On such a day, an antitrust prof's thoughts turn to late fall/early winter marathons.  I am just starting to research a nice small race in a pleasant clime late in the year or very early in January so I can do the bulk of my training in the fall instead of the stinking heat of July and August.  Besides the mid-November Malibu marathon any suggestions?

Heart Attacks

The idea of my heart blowing up in a marathon has been giving me more than a little, er, heartache, certainly since this recent story of Chris Gleason, a 10:00 IM triathlete, and about-to-be 3:00 marathoner, about my age, who left behind his family with only 1/4 mile to go in last fall's Philadelphia marathon.

Of course, I'm conscious of the plane-crash versus car-crash phenomenon, and recognize that the statistics certainly favor us runningprofs over the "Duh Bears" guys from SNL.

A member of a triathlon list-serv to which I belong just shared this Runner's World article, which summarizes a New England Journal of Medicine study. Time reported it as well. Apparently, we're OK, no longer being 22. The only problem is running triathlon.

Here are a few more links to reports on studies (1, 2, 3), which the same list-serv group member shared. (I'd like to attribute, because it's really interesting stuff and I appreciate her sharing it, but I have a rule against naming people by name, so I won't.) A one-sentence summary: everything you know is true -- you shouldn't run long if you aren't properly trained (I've violated this injunction more than once); you need to hydrate (I'm getting much better at this); digging deep at the end isn't healthy (fortunately, I'm really good at walking at the end!).