so my run mojo ain't what i thought

Ha, so I thought that I was Superman, but I'm more like the Our Lady Peace version. Dead. I got the brilliant idea to run 13 miles in a weekend three weeks ago, and by Tuesday I could hardly walk, with apparently what was a re-aggravation of IT band syndrome (look it up in Google, explaining it is tiresome, but basically I'm old and falling apart like a 1,000 year old vampire exposed to sunlight). My butt hurt, my back (left side) hurt, my left hip felt like I'd been hit full speed with a football helmet on the pad - repeatedly, my soleus on the left leg was sore as hell and I developed, later, shin splints and a bruise on top of it all.

So Urban Cow as a half-marathon is out. No time to train - or more accurately, no time to *heal*, so I've emailed the sponsors and said "Please, because I am a complete 'ing moron, change my registration to the 5K." I haven't received a response, but I imagine I'll be allowed to change, if it hasn't already been done, by the time of packet pickup (I suppose I *could* walk it - just so I get my cowbell... but that will take me three hours (then again, what do I have to do on that day anyway?). OTOH, if I do the 5K I'll be done in plenty of time to go to the free massage tables before the half marathon winner is withing farting distance of the finish line. If I walk, all the food will be gone and there's not much eye candy in the part of a race where most of the people are walking...

Speaking of 5Ks, I took about two weeks off from running at all, and ran The Race for the Arts 5K on Saturday. We had a nice cool marine layer come in over the weekend, so I actually ran in long sleeves with my black # 12 Iowa football jersey over it. Now, that's Ricky Stanzi's #er (the starting QB for Iowa this year and the purveyor of the infamous Stanziball (also called "Rick Sixes" when they are intercepted for a TD by the opposing defense), but it is also the former Pittsburgh Steeler QB Terry Bradshaw's #er, and since our jerseys are based on the 1970s Steeler uniform (really really, you can google "Hayden Fry/Iowa uniform" and find a video of Lord Hayden talking about that whole thing), people confuse my Iowa jersey with the Steelers all the time - which is OK, because Steeler fans are everywhere.

I got a shout out at least 4 times during the race "Go Steelers!" and a guy drove by me in his car after the race saying "I still say the Immaculate Reception hit the ground!" (OK, I'm probably getting way too much into football at this point for those of you that don't give a shit about football).

Anyway, a lot of people wore costumes - it is a race that benefits Art organizations, after all - but I've almost always been the only guy in a football jersey in the 5Ks I've run around here (California, outside of pro football, is not that crazy about football, which is one of the things that's Terribly Wrong With California IMHO)... and I mean, that's what recreational 5Ks need, another short, skinny (well, I'm not that skinny) in a giant football jersey looking like he's going to fall over dead at any second running the 5K.

I also wore gangsta length (well, not quite) running shorts this time. I've racked up enough credit at Fleet Feet on J Street that I got a pair of Nike Dri-Fits for $8 and I was surprised that its more comfortable to run in semi-baggies (the Nike ones are more skinny than say Brooks or the other brands) because mine have a tendency to creep up on me in the leg when I run. So I strapped on my iPhone, and actually ran decently considering I'm not training worth a shit, which means I Beat The 80 Year Old Guy to the finish line (he ran a  10:45 mile, and I'll bet he can write his name in the snow too if he can do that). However, a 78 year old guy kicked my ass, so, the universe does restore balance as much as possible.

The ITB didn't act up during the race or afterwards, but I can feel the effects of the injury s lo w in g me down, so this morning I had a consult with an acupuncturist and tomorrow, I get stuck for the first time. I'll do a half dozen treatments and see how it goes. She had me stick out my tongue - Chinese docs learn to read your tongue - and said "Um, you're not sleeping very well and you're very nervous right?" Um, she happens to be right.

Of course, I have this newfound love for beer recently. Now, I've never been a big beer fan, but now I can *drink* it, and I kind of like it. I suspect enough taste buds have finally died that I can guzzle it without ill effect. I hope the needle doc can fix whatever it is that's ailing me - because I signed up for the Northern California Warrior Dash 2010 somewhere west of I-5 near Los Banos. I get to run through muck, crawl under barbed wire, scale obstacles, and leap over fire for 3 miles and then they give you beer. One only, and they urge you to drink responsibly. I plan on wearing my black Iowa shirt so I'll stand out in the crowd when I'm covered with mud (which hopefully will keep me from getting more than 2nd degree burns, right? I have no hop, but perhaps seeing a pile of burning logs in front of me will urge me to jump, um higher).

Oddly, I've lost a little weight over the past month... stress related I'm sure, stress that I'm not going to blog about because, well, everyone has problems. I miss my children a lot, who started school today.  Meredith didn't want to go to school at all... I noted to her (they called after school was over, I'll give their Mom kudos for actually promptly returning my request for a call after the first day of school was over) that "You can have Mom pack your bag for Sacramento, and you won't have to go to school until next Tuesday. But you'll still have to go to school."

She didn't take me up on my offer. She gets to experience the 2nd Hurricane of Her Life this week (she was 3 when Katrina came through Jackson, MS), because Earl apparently is going to skate on by Connecticut this weekend... as a hurricane.

Oh, and I'm taking lessons from another guitarist right now, and the material is totally kicking my ass. Which is a good thing...

return of run mojo

I didn't train nearly as much with the children here as I should have, although I didn't have any scheduled races in mind during those three weeks last month in mind, the plan - such as it was - had me running 2.3 miles each morning during the work week. Well, I sort of end up blowing that entirely off after about the first week they were here, and by the third week I didn't run at all.

No longer needing to drive to work so I could take them to summer school and pick them up at the end of the day, the past two weeks I've been on my mountain bike for the 10 mile daily round trip to work. Since I  hadn't been on a regular exercise sched, the last week of July I just rode the bike - no running. This week, I decided that I'd see how I felt after that week of riding to find out just where the old run mojo, which has been missing since Summer '08 with the knee/hip/whateverthehellkindofinjuryitwas had gone to... and I had a good enough run on Tuesday to say to myself "hey, I think I *can* do and finish - no PR, but finish - the Urban Cow Half Marathon on October 3rd." So, I'm registered and committed, and I have a half-assed training plan - which boils down to running 4x a week - Tue/Thur/Sat/Sun - 3.6/3.6/longrun/3.6 between now and October 3rd.

I really have no idea where my physical conditioning is right now. I've always had a lot of stamina but I know from the couple of 5Ks I've done this year that I'm nowhere near the run shape I was in during 2007 when I finished the CIM marathon. The speed isn't there, but the back of pack isn't such a bad place to be, lots of interesting people in the back :)

To test that conditioning, I decided this morning to see starting with a long run of at least 7 miles to see how I felt at the 3.5 mile point, and go further to a turnaround point if I felt OK. The idea was to set my long runs in the next 6 weeks or so to 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10 and then taper with no long run on Week 7 with the half marathon on Week 8.

Ran my usual route to the American River Parkway via Sac State, but, surprisingly, the ped bridge over the river is closed between campus and the north side of the river, so I ran down the south side almost to Watt Avenue and back, pulled off a 9 miler. I did not run it fast - the objective was simply to see how I felt after a run of at least 7 miles. Not bad, the plantar fasciitis isn't too bad afterwards either. I'm sure I'll be sore in the morning when I do a 3.6 miler "recovery run" but I feel decent all things considered...