A year ago I ran my second half-marathon and improved my time from 2 hours 7 minutes to 1 hour 54 minutes, an improvement of 13 minutes. I knew that I couldn't expect that continued level of improvement, I didn't realize that it would take a year before I would improve on that time.
I've learned a few things since that day.
Don't just keep training after such a surge in improvement. Actually, I don't think it was the continued training in running, but rather a change in gym equipment that resulted in the worst back injury I had suffered from in years. It set my training back a lot.
You don't set PR's running in warmer weather. I just missed a sub-2 hour at "Water-to-Wine" in August, and I'm pretty sure part of that was the warmer conditions.
Don't run a half-marathon in jeans. I did run a sub-2 in my second half-marathon in Monterey, barely.
Have a training plan with an end goal, and don't run more than 2 half-marathons a year. I've been terrible about following training programs. I've fixed into my head to run one interval day, one tempo day, and one long-run day a week without actually focusing on any specific improvement for the training sessions. Oh, I do pretty good on all of it, but intervals. I finally focused on following my a training program for my second attempt at Modesto,but only the last 6 weeks, but I really believe it paid off. By trying to run 4 half-marathons last year, I missed one half-marathon, and didn't really have a enough time to properly train for any of the others.
Do more research. I've gathered some more books on half-marathon training plans. I plan to follow one of these fairly religiously for my next half-marathon in Merced.
Work on speed. I have some 5k training plans now. I still haven't run a full marathon because at this point I don't want to bother unless I have a shot at Boston, silly but true. I think too many people focus on distance, getting the marathon off a bucket list instead of running it at their best possible speed. I could be wrong, but I plan to mesh speed training for a shorter distance this spring with training for a longer run in the fall to see if I can unlock sub-8s for my running endeavors. I had some real pay-offs in speed training for this year in Modesto, building up running efficiency.
So I backed off on the total miles somewhat. Oh, I put in a 16.9 mile long run, and managed a couple of 60+ mile weeks to prep for Modesto 2016, but no 19 milers, or 76+ mile weeks. I backed off of a 10 mile tempo run to a 7 mile tempo run to see if I could hold the pace that was recommended by my training book. I moved to some strength training intervals for 3, 2, 1.5 and 1 miles for 6 miles total each. And, I properly tapered for this attempt in Modesto.
The night before I carbed up on sea food pasta, and kept my wine intake moderate. I remembered my new Soffe shorts. I hoped for a smaller beginning crowd as they had moved the 5k event to start 20 minutes after the full and half marathons. But it was more crowded than the previous year. Still my first mile wasn't much off of last year at a 9:20. After that it was mostly 8:20s and 8:30s. I ran the rest stops, doing my best to splash water and gatorade into my mouth as I ran. This was a departure from my first Modesto PR and subsequent races where I walked the rest stops. I did have one port-a-potty break, number 1 only thankfully, but maybe not needed, and definitely cost me in time.
The final result was a 1 hour 51 minute and 2 second time, more than 3 minutes faster than the previous attempt. I had hoped to break 1h50m, but will save that for Merced, I hope.
My plan is to stick with the actual training plan, starting the day I get back from vacation in June. This is exactly 18 weeks which is the training plan length. I will train for 1h48m.
I have a 5k in May as alluded to above. I hoped to hold a sub-8minute mile pace as I break into a sub-25 minute 5k. I really only have 6 weeks to train though - much shorter than the 12 week programs I should be following. Oh well.
I sort of gave up coffee many years ago. I was drinking too much of it and it was exacerbating my anxiety issues. So I switched to tea. I immediately got into loose leaf tea because that is the best tea out there. At first I drank no coffee, and then, over the years, started to drink it whenever I went on vacation.
Recently we purchased a tear drop trailor.
I knew we would be vacationing in this, and I wanted my vacation coffee. So I started thinking and researching online. I discovered home roasting.
I've roasted beans in the oven, on the stove top using cast iron, using a heat gun, using a heat gun and hot plate. My favorite way to roast is with a modified air popcorn popper.
Besides the obvious stainless steel sheet metal modification, I also bypassed the thermostat cut-off so that it can achieve temperatures high enough to get to second crack - look it up. I can roast 85 grams in less than 4 minutes, but I usually prolong the roasting by switching the air on and off, while stirring to develop the flavors more. So my average roasting time is closer to just shy of 8 minute. If I want to roast a super large batch, then I need to use the hot plate/heat gun combo.
I get my beans from Sweet Maria's.
Great service, fast, wonderful selection. Variety is the spice of life.
Grinidng:
Great little hand grinder hooked up to my drill. I've since moved on to
It gives a more consistent expresso grind, and greater volume in case I ever need it. I like immersion methods of brewing, but didn't want to use a coarse grind and so French Press was out. I went with an Aeropress. It can handle really fine grinds. I wasn't thrilled with the plastic or paper disks, so I replaced the paper with a stainless steel screen. At least the plastic is BPA free.
Some roasted and unroasted beans:
I stopped drinking tea. I limit myself to two cups of coffee a day, and that seems to work. It is really good coffee, better than I ever had before. The coffee in France, and Italy don't even come close. If you love something enough, and you are willing to put in the effort, you can almost always achieve better results than any commercial application.
A cute dog:
A cute but camera shy dog:
Some Kimchi
The basil/cilantro combo is crazy good.
I brew beer
I ran the 2015 Monterey Half-Marathon. The 2014 Monterey half was my first half marathon run, and I ran that in 2 hours 7 minutes. My goal this year was to beat that time, maybe the Modesto time, at least under 2 hours, please.
My wife and I love Monterey. We often have a good time there. Perhaps I had too good of time, perhaps one glass of wine too many? I also forgot my running shorts.
By the time I noticed this, it was too late to purchase a pair. At first I was going to not run. But I really wanted my 2015 medal. I also wanted the sub-2 hour time. Between the wine, and now this, it seemed that I was subconsciously sabotaging my efforts to PR. I decided to run in my jeans.
1 hour 59 minute exactly.
There were a lot of hills that I didn't remember from the first time. My jeans were soaked in sweat by the time I finished. There was much chaffing. I got a new blood blister on the bottom of my foot from the effort. I finished 1635th place out of 6559 participants. That puts me in the top third. I'll take it.
I used to run as many as 70+ mile weeks. I've stopped that. I dropped down to running 60 mile weeks on occasion, and now I'm in the 49-53 mile range. I've decided to reduce the amount of running to get more of my life back for other activities, and because I'm not actually training for a marathon. I run half marathons. Fifty miles a week is plenty for half marathon training.
I've also dropped 16.5 mile long runs. Hansen's half marathon book suggests 14 mile long runs, every other week or so. I have a route that does 13.8 miles. I like that. I'm thinking every other week I will run it with the goal of finishing in under 2 hours. If I can manage that, then I will always be able to run my races in under 2 hours. That would be sufficient.
Insert Long Blogging Break Here
So I started this post many months ago. In that time David Bowie died, and I started carrying a water bottle on my runs instead of relying on the water fountains along the canal. I'm sad about David. I'm able to change up where I run. I've done a couple of 16 mile runs.
I started taking peanut butter cookies with mini-chocolate chips on my runs.
Probably not the healthiest running food, but it sure is motivating. The recipe is basically your classic peanut butter cookie with mini-chocolate chips mixed in. I also beef up the salt slightly for salt replacement during the run.
I wish I could say I was ready for this race, I wasn't. Oh, I knew I could run the distance. I knew that I would run it faster then my first half, but I also knew I would struggle to finish in under 2 hours. Its crazy, I tapered fairly well, except Tuesday I ran too hard and did something to my left leg. Okay, time for the excuses:
My left leg was bugging me
It was too hot - where was the famous Sonoma county fog?
It had too many hills
I had to run behind a truck and breath truck fumes
I had to run on dirt behind other runners who were kicking up dirt
An old friend stepped on my left hallux, you know the one where the toe nail is still growing back
Seriously though, no excuses, I just didn't get good tempo training in. My training has been a bit sluggish. I think it takes a race like this, a disappointment, to motivate me to start training hard again.
Its probably not that easy. I'll just reflect, run, try to run faster, and hope for better in November.
The Ride
Driving up to Kendall Jackson winery was fairly bad. A lot of traffic, the start and stop variety, a 2 hour 41 minute trip turned into a 4+hour trip. We got there, picked up the race packet and eased our road aches with a little wine tasting. The Pinot Noir was very good.
Visiting with an Old Friend
A friend that I have known since high school, who has been living out of state for like a decade, has returned. To my surprise, he has moved to a place very close to this race. He recently emailed me to ask me about my trip to France, I turned his attention to my blog, and he deduced where my next run would be. A phone call later and we arranged to visit.
The visit alone made the trip worth it. I wasn't sure I would repeat this run, but now I am rethinking just to have an excuse to drop by.
Dinner
My wife and I, along with friend and his significant other went to:
No pictures of meals this time. My wife went with seafood Risotto, I had lamb on ravioli's.
We had an unremarkable chardonnay to go along with the dinner. We shared a serving of Tiramisu.
The Race
I guess I got there a bit early...
The course:
The times:
According to this data, Modesto was more hilly, but that is silly. My best pace numbers aren't to bad, but only 3 sub 9 minute miles. The final official time was 2 hours and 30 seconds.
Pros and Cons
I liked the location of the race. I liked that the race was a dedicated half marathon and not coupled with a marathon. I liked the racing shirt, the finish medal (practical wine bottle stopper), and the 13.1 sticker. I never thought I would put a 13.1 sticker on my car, but it was free, this was my 4th half marathon, it was time. The organization was excellent, the people helpful, and the police did a great job of keeping us safe at traffic lights. I liked that I was able to visit a good friend.
I didn't like that a good chunk of the race was open to traffic and we were delegated to the bike lane. In the final mile I had to burn some much needed reserve to pass several people who were slowing, while on an over pass. I was nervous to say the least. I didn't like running through the wineries. I know, kind of the point, but the dust really was awful. And following the truck really was crappy as I kept thinking of how I was sucking in those fumes.
As of this moment the next race is return to Monterey in November, but I'm thinking about the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll half marathon.
Last spring I had the opportunity to stay at a couple of nice hotels, one in Monterey, and the other in Santa Cruz. The hotel restaurants also had good reputations. I had breakfast at both and tried an omelet at both.
The omelets came out looking likes some sort of steamed or boiled egg product wrapped around some filling.
It didn't look like an omelet.
It didn't taste like an omelet.
Is this the new way to make omelets? Is it an attempt to keep butter out of the meal? I made the change from double folded to single folded omelets years ago because it made sense, I could put more filling in my omelet. Occasionally I still put in a second fold, like in this one:
This has a ham and cheddar cheese filling. Then I add Kimchi (same as described below) and Sriracha:
Is it any wonder that I don't much care for going out to eat anymore?
The Kimchi Breakthrough
I've been making Kimchi quite a bit, and eating most of it - my wife also enjoys the occasional bowl. However, until recently I've been battling an odd bitter taste in it. I don't mind a little bitter in my beer, not so fond of it in my kimchi.
I tried leaving out random ingredients, but that didn't work. Then I started to think about my source of chili powder.
I bought a couple of bags from my grocery store. BIG bags of chili powder you can find with all of the other south of the border spices. There is California chili powder and New Mexico chili powder. One is hotter than the other. I have no idea how they are processed.
Then one day I looked at my string of hot chilies from our garden from a couple of years ago. I have a really efficient spice pulverizer. So when the last of my Kimchi ran out, I tried a new recipe:
2 white onions, 3 garlic cloves, and 2 apples (cored and peeled) turned into a sauce in my food processor.
A bunch of regular red radishes (the daikons never look all that fresh or good) and an equal amount of carrots grated by the food processor.
A bunch of cilantro, leaves coarsely chopped.
2 Red bell peppers cut into chunks.
2 Napa cabbages chopped coarsely. There should be some good 1 by 1 inch chunks in there.
2% by weight of all these ingredients in kosher salt - no iodine in my salt.
5 little hot red peppers pulverize in my spice grinder with about a teaspoon of white peppercorns.
1/4 cup of high quality fish sauce.
Here is my little friend:
Kimchi being transferred from its 48 hour stay in the fermentation jar:
It doesn't look hot. Lacking the 1/4 to 1/2 cup of chili powder, it doesn't turn red. In addition to the red color, it is also missing the bitter taste, but still brings plenty of heat to the palate. For some reason Kimchi seems to ferment faster than sauerkraut, so I don't leave it the fermentation jar for more then a couple of days. This kimchi is so tasty I can eat it out of a bowl and not just as a garnish on my omelet. I'm thinking I might try 8 chili peppers in the next batch.
Of Fennel and Beets
I recently discovered a recipe for baked fennel. Basically, you slice the bulb into half inch chunks, spread them out in a pan, dribble olive oil on them and a sprinkle of Parmesan, bake at 375 for 45 minutes. It was pretty good. One day I didn't have enough fennel, but had some beets lying around. Also I have this lemon bush that puts out lots of lemons.
1 Fennel bulb
2 beets
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Asiago cheese
Pulverized white pepper and Turkish Oregano (the same as I use in my steak rubs)
Dribble the liquids on the slices, sprinkle the spices and cheese on the top and bake as above.
The lemon juice and Asiago cheese take this dish to another level. If you have enough fennel, just replace the beets with fennel and it is still an awesome dish.
Wild Bread
If you get into high hydration dough and capturing your own microbe culture for your leavening, then chances are you will discover Tartine breads. You can find Youtube videos on it, New York Times' articles about them, it's a bit of a fad.
I came into it obliquely and tried my own twist by using my Primo to bake the bread. It keeps the heat out of the house in this rather warm weather. I thought by adding a pan of water (for steam) that I could omit the requirement for the combo cooker. I now use a pre-heated dutch oven inside the Primo.
It is very tasty and I haven't bought bread for many moons now. I've even used it in my terrines.
I figure I have to be crazy to keep running these kind of miles for half marathons, when much less would do. If I were even remotely fast it might make sense. This song came on my Pandora "Poison" channel and it really got me moving my legs.
Today was Friday the 13th, no not the date, just- "I'm going to run 13 miles on Friday" -day. I feel like I might be borderline burning out on running. It just seems to get harder to motivate myself for the longer runs, when I used to be eager for them. Thank goodness for habit. I just stop thinking about how I don't want to run, move my feet in the right direction, and before I know it, I'm running.
Based on my Modesto performance, I have all these goals that are outlined for me in the Hansen's Marathon method book. I do really good on the interval training on the treadmill. However, I've read that it is easier to run faster on the treadmill. Still, I'm knocking out 8mph intervals (5.8 mph used to be challenging - see below) at 800-1200 meters a piece, with 400 meter "rest" laps at 6mph. My long runs also fit within the training goals. Nevertheless, I'm unable to maintain the 8 minute 46 second pace on Fridays for tempo running. I'm about 8 seconds off. Thinking about it makes me not want to run, and so I've stopped thinking about it.
In the hope of lifting my spirits and motivating me to stay with the running, if not the training, I've decided to reflect on my achievements over the past 2 years. The past year is for the most part documented in this blog. Before that there was Facebook, and I thought it might be interesting to post some of those comments over to here.
July 21st 2013
"Cross training by high altitude hiking in Mammoth lakes basin" My first ever online reference to running. I was getting over my only case of "shin splints" as I took up running distance for the first time. Before that, I had only run maybe a mile during gym in school. July 28th 2013 - Warning: Wall of Text "The Dog-Ear-Infection-Cascade In an earlier post I mentioned that I had switched my dogs to a raw meat diet. What initiated this switch? My male Cairn terrier got an ear infection. Don’t see the connection? I started looking on youtube for a video how to use one of the ear medications on my dog because my vet is at best mediocre at explaining such procedures. And frankly I don’t trust either of them – there are two vets at our “clinic.” One of the videos I watched about reoccurring ear infections and health issues in general mentioned diet. Further investigation revealed a number of sources on a “raw meat diet.” Having heard of this through an affiliation with a Cairn terrier club I looked into it some more and made the switch. Then came the next event in this cascade. I started thinking what else I could do for my dogs to improve their overall health. My wife used to walk the dogs regularly before she went into administration, and I even used to go along with her. However, my preferred cardiovascular workout was either a bike ride or the elliptical machine at the gym. My dogs can’t be trusted for bike rides and besides they have short legs. So I decided to make the ultimate sacrifice and take up running. I know, it doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice to many, but I hate running. My earliest memories of running was my dad going out for his regular morning jog before heading off to work in the Marine corp. It was something that took my dad away from me that much earlier in the day. My first early attempts at this type of exercise resulted in excruciating agony in my legs or an emetic reaction. I hated running. Nevertheless, the next day I grabbed my dogs leashes, put on my sneakers and we went “running” along our usual 3.4 mile walking route. Well, more like, run, walk, run, walk, walk, run and finally walk. And sure enough, the next day, myalgia in the anterior crus with the new bonus reward, courtesy I assume of advancing age, of pain between the tarsal and metatarsals of my feet. I spent a good day reflecting upon this as I sat in my pool nursing my lower extremities but determined to continue the effort. Coincidentally both my dogs and I are at, or approaching middle age. I wondered if it were prudent to put all of us through this “lifestyle” change. I considered this during the weekend of my recuperation and looked to my dogs as we went for our next run/walk. But damn it, they seemed to really enjoy this whole running business. I had to wonder if they were laughing at me as we ran/walk the next couple of weeks. At this point I thought there was no way that I would ever be able to continuously run that entire distance. I went online, again, to figure out what I was doing wrong or if there were people who just can’t continuously run such distances. During the search I discovered websites that outlined an eight week program to run 5 kilometers (3 miles). I took a deep breath, I had only been doing this two weeks, I needed to lower my expectations. Notice the switch from better health for my dogs to obsessive desire to reach a certain goal for myself. On July 26th I ran the entire distance with almost no stops. There were the required stops for dogs dropping loads (twice briefly) and the midway water stop for all three of us. But I was on top of the world having never come close to running such distance before. Today, July 28th, my wife walked the dogs and I ran 5 miles non-stop. I’ve bought running shoes and an endurance vest so I don’t have to stop for water. I’ve been looking online at 5K and 10K races. Next week I plan on working to improve my 5K+ time running with my dogs. And next Sunday I hope to run 6+ miles or a 10K run. I love running. All of this from my dog’s ear infection…"
You can see why I switched to blogging. I found this funny article during this time:
"Ray's running escapades: Mosey on Monday Run like the wind Wednesday Don't falter Friday Super long Sunday 7.25 miles this Sunday, including cross-training 28 miles a week"
I don't usually run Mondays anymore. I still run like the wind (for me) on Wednesday, and Sunday runs are still super long. Friday is now "Fast Friday."
December 15th 2013
"Back when I used to walk the dogs nobody who we passed said "Hi." Now that I run with the dogs everyone wants to say "Hi," as if they want to test to see if I have the breath to return the greeting."
I wave my hand these days.
February 12th 2014
"So, having acquired half of a Gloucester Old Spot, today I made Lardo and hung the Capicola in my curing chamber. The Lardo will be ready the day before my 50th birthday. I may wait a day to try it. The Capicola should be ready in 4-8 weeks."
Something Culinary, that Lardo was finished about a week ago. I miss it already.
March 15th 2014
"Is it a bad sign if you see a large white rabbit in someone's front yard during your morning 5k run?"
April 12th 2014
"3.25 miles or 5.23 kilometers in 32 minutes. I'm slow, but I finally beat a 10 minute mile."
A 9 minute 50 second pace is my "easy" pace.
April 20th 2014
"6 miles in 59 minutes, I have never worked so hard to run so slow"
April 22nd 2014
"Breakthrough on the Treadmill, 5.7mph at speed for 30 minutes with no holding of handrails, 5.8mph here I come..."
Now that is funny.
May 4th 2014
"Looks like I have hit a plateau in my running time. Oh well, I haven't even been doing this for a year. 9.25 minutes a mile"
May 20th 2014
"I should hit 31+ miles this week. I have a plan for a regular 37+ miles a week, and perhaps 48 miles a week before summer ends. We will see."
I'm now running 60+ mile weeks.
May 30th 2014
"
Today new distance milestone of 10.4 miles (16.7 kilometers). That puts the week total to 37.7 miles (60.7 kilometers). I wonder if I can break 40 miles next week
— feeling happy."
I didn't break 50 miles per week until after my 50th birthday.
June 10th 2014
"While running today a guy offers a greeting to me:
He either thinks he is Bugs-Bunny, Or he thinks I am his family physician, Or he knows I work at the college and thinks I have a PhD. I wonder which one it was?"
This one makes me sad because the fellow I'm talking about no longer lives in the area - had a health crisis.
June 13th 2014
"The "Long Run." This finishes my second 40+ mile per week pattern. One more week of this, then vacation, then I will start working on tempo and interval running, again within the 40 mile per week regimen.
I started the 10.4 mile run at 150.2 pounds and finished at 144.8 pounds."
My long run is generally 16.5 miles.
June 25th 2014
"Four mile beach run on the Oregon coast-priceless"
July 3rd 2014
"4 mile morning run in Glacier national park"
July 8th 2014
"A year ago...
I started running, supposedly to help my dog's cardiovascular health. They no longer run with me, because they can't keep up or go the distance.
In that year I have gone from barely being able to run a block to running 13.1 miles (once), my first 5 kilometer race and 40 miles per week totals.
This year I hope to run more races and improve my long run to 20 miles. I also want to improve my speed. Currently, on a good day, I can hit a 9.4 minute mile on a 5k run. Today, fresh from vacation, I barely managed 10.27 minute miles."
I still haven't managed 20 miles in a single run, 19.2 miles in 3 hours.
And after that I started my blog, a year and 2 weeks ago.
feeling happy."
