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!