my trip to cooperstown, ny

Memorial Day was very low-key this year - not much went on for us. Basically tried to relax and catch up on some much needed sleep.

Tuesday was my trip out to Cooperstown, NY (home of the baseball hall of fame). I woke up early and was able to squeeze an easy run in the neighborhood. I got back and headed to the municipal airport on the west side of town to catch the charter flight out. There I was, carrying my golf clubs and boarding a plane - like someone who golfs all the time and travels just to try different courses... yep that's me (not). It had been close to 2-1/2 years since I golfed. At that time, I wasn't bad, but I wasn't very good either.

So, and early morning flight out to Rome, NY and then about an hours drive to Cooperstown. What a beautiful little village. Postcard perfect... I had been there as a kid with my family on vacation, but I remembered very little, so it was like seeing it for the first time. The houses were gorgeous - large Victorian and First Empire styled homes - amazing. I could see myself there if there was enough work to keep me busy the rest of my life...

But on to the golf outing... we arrived just in time for lunch - good food. Then it was time for the shotgun start at 1pm sharp. Our foursome started on hole 14. The views were amazing! Tree lined fairways all with a view of the lake and historic hotel. Just being out there was an experience - I could have had just as much fun driving the golf cart just seeing those views. I imagine it is spectacular in the fall...

I did not play well at all, but had a great time. I would love to take up golfing again, but running to me is so much easier. It requires so little thinking and just doing - I like that. Golfing on the other hand is so mental. I was constantly thinking through my swing and analyzing my shots. It was mentally taxing.

I didn't arrive back in Indy until 11pm and didn't get home until almost midnight. Needless to say I slept in and was moving slowly all day. I finally got around to my run this evening at 5pm. I decided to try to hide from the heat and humidity in the woods, but the humidity found me. With the rain we had last weekend, the trails were a little muddier than before and slightly more slippery on the rocks, but it was still a good run. I looped the trail twice to get 4 miles in. The hills were still tough, but I was able to push through them this time.

Now I am trying to figure out my long run for the week. With our trip up to Detroit for a wedding this weekend, I'll need to squeeze in a 10 miler either tomorrow or very early Friday morning. My choice would be Friday, giving me a slight recovery day just before, so we'll see.

a sticky 9 miles

I just got back from running 9 miles on Fall Creek Trail this morning. It was a humid, but a cool 60 degree morning, overcast, but no rain in sight. Brooke joined me for this run and we ended up running at a good pace - surprisingly faster than I thought we would for 9 miles. We averaged a 9:00/mile pace (81:16 overall time).

Here's the breakdown - pretty even splits, and faster towards the end:

1. 9:04
2. 9:12
3. 9:10
4. 8:56
5. 9:08
6. 8:44
7. 9:05
8. 8:48
9. 8:55

Superstars in the making...

my treadmil is a-l-i-v-e!

Got it all fixed yesterday and it is back up and running.

interesting developments

My running is still not firing on all cylinders, but I did manage to get two runs in this week. I am gearing up for a 9 mile long run this weekend, so we'll see how it goes. The good thing is the weather should be nice and I have stuff to think about during my run...

Things have finally slowed down at work so I can catch my breath (though this is only temporary). I am actually taking next week off and will be heading to Detroit for a wedding next weekend.

To start my week(Tuesday), I am flying to upstate NY for the day for a golf outing - this is business, but I am hoping it will be fun as well. This is related to a client we have out there and I expressed interest in working with them since I am from New York. Interestingly enough, I was approached on Tuesday and asked if I golfed and would like to go. I usually try to get out of things like this as my golfing is so sporadic (every two years), but I was somewhat interested in getting "in" on the project. Then I received a meeting request about the project, so I accepted and will be meeting this morning to discuss... I did get a little information ahead of time. The gist of the meeting was getting me on board to manage a bunch of projects out there... but there was a twist to some of this - not a catch, just a twist. They have asked me to move out to New York to manage them... this isn't a definite thing. I could still manage it from here, with some trips out there as needed, but they thought since I was from New York I might want to move back out there...

Admittedly, if this were about three years ago, I might have jumped at the chance, but things have changed for me significantly in the last few months that this really isn't an option. So, the plot thickens. I will follow up with more details later... and this isn't even my big announcement...

talk-walk-run 5k race report

It was another beautiful day - sunny, a little cool, but all around perfect running weather. I decided to go ahead with the 5k today and my friend Jason joined me. It was held at Fort Harrison State Park, my usual running hangout, so I was familiar with the terrain.

Unfortunately, it did not prepare me as well as I had hoped. We started out at almost the front of the start line and took off with everyone only to find it was just too fast. I don't think we got in the way of too many people, but it felt like we got passed by quite a few people.

The course was a double loop - one small loop (.6 miles) and one larger loop (2.5 miles), both with some aggressive hills. As we approached the first hill, we made a good climb and passed a couple of people. This wasn't too bad, but it was already feeling like it was going to be a tough race. As we came back around to the start line area to begin the second loop I was settling into my pace and was feeling pretty good.

When we hit the first mile marker, I looked down: 7:55/mile pace... not bad I thought, but with a long grade ahead, I was not sure our pace could remain. Our talking stopped and my breathing got heavier, but we made it to the top and once on the flat ground I was able to relax a little. The back half of the course was undulating hills, none too serious. On the last hill before rounding the corner towards the finish I made one last attempt to pass a few people without expending too much energy. We got to the top and held our pace until we hit the three mile mark and then my legs went into overdrive (eventhough my lungs said, "I don't think so"). Final time: 25:01, average pace: 8:03/mile, I was 39th out of 155, and 4th in my age group - I believe this is a PR for finish place, eventhough it is not my fastest 5k time.

That is all for now. Time is quickly approaching to make my big announcement, so stayed tuned...

Happy running to all!

this is not working out...

After getting my recovery run in on Monday, I have failed to run at all the rest of the week. Some of it due to work schedule and some due to being tired. My week has been rather busy -- more than I thought it would be... I was up in Michigan all day Wednesday, getting home late so I slept in a little, leaving no time for running after work. Then I had an awards banquet to go to last night, again getting home late, and as I type this I am rushing off to Lafayette, Indiana for meetings.

The parts for my treadmill showed up yesterday, so I'll be installing these this weekend and then getting it recalibrated. I am planning on running the 5k race I mentioned, so I will report on this later.

Have a great weekend everyone.

recovery run with nature

Trying to stick to a schedule and get serious about my running again, I got home early enough to go for a run. In my infinite wisdom I decided that it made logical sense to do my recovery run on a trail -- it is softer, I generally run slower because of the terrain and it was also cooler in the woods...

I just did three miles, but it was a nice change of pace from road running. I think I'll be doing this more often for recovery runs. I am going to try to squeeze in a couple more mid-week runs and then figure out what to do for my weekend run. There is a 5k race at the state park by me that I might do because this is a step back week for me, but we'll see.

customer service

It still exists... my "dead" mill will soon be revived... think Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein: "He's alive!"

I made a call to the treadmill manufacturer to see if they might have some insight into why my treadmill has acted up and has died. I didn't have high hopes as I tried to wait on hold for probably ten minutes, they did give the option for a call back in the order the call was received, so after ten minutes it was automatically sent to the call back mode. All they asked for was a message where I left my name and model/serial number of the treadmill and someone would call me back when a technician was available. About an hour later they did. I wasn't expecting much as we went through their standard list of questions that are in the owner's manual that I had personally already confirmed. The technician then checked the maintenance history of the treadmill and saw that this was the third time I had had the same or similar problem. So he said that normally they would charge for the parts, but because this has occurred before, there would be no charge even though the motor was the only part still under warranty.

I fully expected to have to pay for the parts and I found out that the control card alone is $170.oo - yikes. A little more discussion with him and I also find out that the lubrication I should be using on the deck of the treadmill is not the silicone that another technician had suggested I use, but something that has a thicker consistency which they sell. Having had trouble with finding a treadmill lubricant, they are sending a couple of tubes of theirs as well.

Finally, a company that stands behind their product and wants to make it right for the consumer and not stand behind their one-year warranty! Maybe the world isn't going to hell in a hand basket afterall...

So, now I will have a working treadmill again. The question is, do I keep it or get rid of it? I had intentions of selling it to make more room in the house, but Steph has presented me with an option of moving it into the other spare bedroom which is larger, but would require a smaller bed in the room... decisions, decisions... guess I'll be measuring the room to see if the treadmill will fit without being too cluttered.

a "special" mother's day

It was a beautiful day - simply perfect! It was sunny, a comfortable temperature in the 70's with a slight breeze. If only the weather was like that every day year round...

My parents and Steph's parents and her sister all came over for a big Mother's Day brunch. I had hashbrowns, sausages, bacon and eggs all going at the same time - quite a production if I do say so myself. Steph had also made some incredible coffee cake and had gotten some fresh strawberries. It was a feast for the senses... The rest of the day was spent lounging, or at least most of it, though I started consolidating my running gear to one location and also took apart my treadmill to examine it - just to see if I could figure out what was wrong. I am no treadmill repair guy, but the blackened spot on the motor control card right at the wire connection seemed like it just might be the problem. The next step is to see how much $ it will cost...

My run yesterday was good. I was tired, but determined to run 8 miles. Luckily I had Brooke for company and like clockwork our miles raced by. It is always great to catch up and get a long run in at the same time - very efficient that way.

We had a bit of a surprise on our run as we started to head out the back of the state park and pick up the Fall Creek Trail, but when we got there they were in the middle of ripping up the bridge (and it was about time! There were patches of patches - it was in terrible shape and somewhat dangerous to run on with all of the potholes and uneven surfaces). We even asked if we could run through, but they said there were holes in the deck and it was a liability issue. No problem. We just stayed in the park and made up our mileage that way. We ran a very consistent pace for the first few miles, then we got just a little faster, finishing up our last mile at a 9:03/mile pace. Overall we were at a 9:23/mile pace and this was with hills.

I am shuffling my running schedule around so I can get my long runs into double digits before mid-June. Pfitz has me starting the 18 week training program with an 11 mile long run for the first week. I have some time to get there, but with training starting soon I have some work to do. I had mentioned it before, but this is going to be a busy summer all around. It doesn't look like we will have much of a vacation this year and we had anticipated this last year, so we made sure we enjoyed ourselves out in Cape Cod. My heart longs to be there right now - running along the beach, the sound and the smell of the ocean in the air... someday we'll go back... but for now it is getting my list of "to-do's" together and start checking them off. I have a good start on the mulching and landscaping this year and have a little more to do, but on top of this there is the painting of the exterior trim, some interior renovation of one of out bedrooms and some furniture refinishing... I have until the end of November to get most of this done, but quite a bit of this has to happen this summer while the weather is good. But enough of all that for now. More to follow on this soon...

I hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day and I hope everyones run was great. Until then - happy running to all!

happy blog-iversary to me

Well, how time flies. It has been a year since I started this blog. From my first race report of last year's Mini Marathon through last weekend's trail run -- it has been quite a ride, er I mean run...

I have been doing a lot of thinking about my fall marathon and I know it will not be the Marine Corps Marathon for me, but there is always next year. I am going to train for and run a Marathon, but I will get this figured out soon as training is just around the corner. This year I am going to use the Pfitz plan. I need a much more disciplined plan and I think I am ready for it.

I am planning on heading out for a run after work today to get some more mileage in for the week and then try for an 8 mile run this weekend - probably not on the trails, but who knows - they were a lot of fun...

Tomorrow I am out to the track to see some Indy car practice. It will be the first time I will have been there during Indy car practice in all the years I have lived here - hopefully it will be fun.

where the wild things run

Another week has passed and not much running happened again. It was a busy week at work. I found myself having to do a week's worth of work in the first two days for out of town meetings I had on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The meetings were fine, just made for long days. The first two were both up in Michigan, but I chose to return each day as I had to get a few things done at the office afterwards. By the end of Friday I was spent.

On Saturday I slept in and didn't wake until the starting of the Mini-Marathon. It was a tough time just watching it and the 35,000+ runners and walkers on TV. I wanted to be there running it as I have the past 6 years -- but I know I would not have run my best race. Even if I had trained for it and run it, I was so tired that it would have been painful.

Saturday night, after a little yard work including mowing the yard, I indulge in some margaritas - it was Cinco De Mayo after all! They were a little heavy on the Tequila though, but they were tasty...

On Sunday I did get out for a run. I decided it was time to get back to the trails so I headed over to Fort Harrison State Park to check out the trails. With 7 trails to choose from, there was plenty of distance to run. I started out on the Fall Creek Trail, which runs along the banks of the Fall Creek. It was a nice fairly wide path that I found out the hard way has a set of stairs that are killer. I was breathing heavy by the time I got through those. The trail then curved around, crossing the paved Harrison Trace Trail that I usually run when I am there, and I picked up the Camp Creek Trail which circled back around to the Fall Creek Trailhead. I then ran on part of the paved Harrison Trace Trail to the Lawrence Creek Trail. Wow! This trail seemed like it started going straight up for what seemed like a half mile. It was most likely less, but I did have to stop at the top to catch my breath... the margaritas were catching up with me. I was dehydrated and just felt exhausted. I continued on, circling around back to the trailhead and then hopped back on the paved trail heading back towards my truck.

The times I was out in the sun, I could tell it was getting warm out, but amongst the trees it was cool and just so scenic. I have fallen in love with this park all over again!

I was surprised to see so many people on the trail walking their dogs... I did see one other runner, but she was running with her dog. I got a few weird looks, but people were courteous. The next time I go, I may try to get out a little earlier.

Overall, it was a great run. It certainly kicked my ass. I have a lot of work to do to get back to a decent base before marathon training begins. And my destination marathon is changing for this fall, but more to follow on this at a later date.

Until then, Happy Running to all!