THANKS
First of all, with the Thanksgiving Holiday having just passed, a couple of things I'm thankful for:
*Beth - for being so supportive and encouraging of all that I do, even when I come up short of my goals.
*My family - that I had a chance to spend some time with on Thanksgiving.
*My job - some days I truly reflect at the end of the day and think, "I'm even getting paid for this." At least most days. Some days are rougher than others. Also, just thankful with so many people out of work.
*Our church - it's great to be able to celebrate our relationship with Jesus with such amazing people. And, if you are into praise music, you have to check out Cornerstone's newly released 2-CD album of live and studio music. It's so neat to think that these talented people on the album are the ones up in front leading worship each week. Check it out!
*My health - to have the chance to do all of these fun sports activities
And, I'm just thankful for each day God's given me to make a difference. Not to get into the details, but I was in a car accident two weeks back. The car got totaled, but I came away with just a sore neck for a day or two (I kidded with the insurance adjustor that my legs were sore, but that was more due to running a marathon two days prior). A split second one way or another, things could have been very different.
MARATHON REFLECTIONS
So, it's back to the drawing board with the marathon training to get ready for the Pittsburgh Marathon in May 2012. We've determined that we're going to tweak my training since I've done the same plan the last two times without achieving my desired goals.
I liked the weekly mileage I hit since mid-July (51, 47, 49, 45, 46, 55, 50, 51, 53, 50, 43, 46, 49, 45, 45, 53, 42, 32, marathon week), but there must still be some things that I can tweak so that I'm not running out of gas at the end of the marathon. Here's some of our ideas that I'm going to implement with my next plan:
*Weekend piggy-back of long day and medium/hard day to try to fatigue the legs more for either the long run or the medium/hard run.
*Throw in a double run day here and there (like Beth's doing for her current training)
*Maxing out the long run to more like 25 miles instead of 21. Beth was telling me that Josh Cox has a long run where he does a 3-mile warmup, 18 at marathon pace, and a 3-mile cooldown. I think that would be a good way to push the legs a little more on the long days.
*Not be so 1-dimensional in my training. Due to working/coaching/spectathleting, there's only so many hours in the day that I can allocate to training. So, I got all my runs in, but that was it. Just runs. My only "swim" since the start of school was 15 minutes in the Pacific when we were in Kona. My plan is to be more involved with weights (and I've started already) even if it's at the sacrifice of a few miles. Also, I want to "cross train" with some other sports. Whether it's going back to doing the box drills with the track kids, basketball,....and I think I want to channel my college days and get back into racquetball, but I've found there aren't many courts in the Pittsburgh area. So that may be on hold.
So, that's where I'm going to start. In the last week I got three swims in, so that's off to a good start. Any ideas out there are more than welcome in the comments section. I know there's a sub-3:00 marathon in me. It's just a matter of doing the optimal preparation to get it done.
RUNNING FOR LAPTOPS
And, with the marathon, comes another opportunity to support a great charity. The Elizabethtown College Alumni Group (Pittsburgh Chapter) wanted to support a charity as a group for this year's Pittsburgh Marathon. We started out with a list of 8 or so great charities and, after lots of discussion, narrowed it down and decided to go with Running for Laptops. I worked with them for the Great Race back in September and found it to be a great group and very easy to lend my support.
So, whether it's $5 or $500 (more like the $5), I'd love to have you join me and my Etown alumni friends in supporting this group that provides laptops for students who have "aged out" of the foster care program. These students don't have all the love and support that so many of us have with our families and having that computer to help with college, being organized at home, or looking for jobs could make all the difference.
What are YOU thankful for? Think about sharing just a tiny bit (the value of two cups of coffee) of what you've been blessed with to someone who hasn't had it as good. Thank you!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Harrisburg Marathon Race Report
...or the alternative title: "Back to the Drawing Board"
Well, where to start?
The good:
-My hamstrings didn't cramp during the race
-The weather was nearly perfect (started in the upper 30's, finished in the low 50's)
-I ran under control for the first half (even through 20+ miles), and was on target for 3:10 through 23 miles
The bad:
-My next to last gel went down very slowly
-My final gel really wouldn't go down (and only took in half of it before tossing the gel pack into a garbage can along the course)
-That gel (and pretty much all other items I ingested that morning) got tossed out in three successive heaves about 100 meters apart around mile 24-ish along the riverfront
-While not cramping, my hamstrings were "letting me know they were there" from about mile 6 or 7 to the end. They just felt tight and never got loose (maybe this was a good thing and held me back on my pace, though)
Needless to say, I didn't hit my 3:10 goal.
After the gun went off, we departed city island and I tried to settle in to a 7:15/mile pace. I felt like I was crawling along, trying to NOT go out too fast. The result - 6:52. Ugh! Miles 2 and 3 were just over 7:00. I saw Beth and told her that I was trying to throw on the brakes. Finally, mile 4 and 5 were 7:18 and I was settling in.
As I saw Beth, it was back over to city island with miles 6 and 7 at 7:05's. After leaving city island, the mile 8 sign was missing, but miles 8 and 9 averaged out to 7:19 each. The next three miles were along the riverfront and were in the 7:0x's (with a little bit of a tailwind).
We then veered off the river and up towards the industrial park. I went through the half in just under 1:34. I was hoping for 1:35, but I wasn't all that far ahead of pace (and much more relaxed than the 1:28:30 in Pittsburgh). The least scenic part of the race was along the industrial road with the 18-wheelers. But then we went into the HACC campus (where I saw Beth 3 times) and was feeling great for miles 16 and 17.
Mile 18-20 took us through a park. This was the only hilly portion of the course. They were short, steep ups and downs. Things felt good and, after a 7:25 of a mostly up hill mile, mile 20 was 7:06.
Okay, 10k to go. Mile 21 was 7:35. The legs were starting to feel tired, but I wasn't too concerned. It didn't feel as bad as Pittsburgh. Also, I figured to just back off and fulfill my goal of jogging the whole race. If I didn't hit 3:10, so be it. Mile 22 was 7:42 and the thought, "that's fine" went through my head. Mile 23 slowed down to 8:08 as I'm attempting to put down my final gel.
It didn't go down too well. I forced down maybe a third of it. Then, I finally chucked it into a garbage can because I couldn't take anymore. I'm not sure if it happened before or after the 24-mile marker but I'm definitely sure of what happened. It felt like there was a direct hose from my stomach leading out of my mouth and someone turned the faucet on. With that taken care of in the riverfront park, I shuffled forward. However, after another 100 or so meters, a repeat of what had just happened.
Okay that has to be it, right? Mosey on down the road another 100 or so meters and somehow I hit the triple. How was there anything left in my stomach?
After all of that, the final three miles are 8:58, 11:38, and 11:48. Heck, I even picked up a cramp in my chest as I did the final 0.2 across the bridge (2:41 for the last 0.2).
So much for comfortably jogging into the finish line. Oh well. Final time 3:22:02. At least it was a couple seconds faster than Pittsburgh!
So, it's back to the drawing board. But, like Steve P reminded me on fb, I still got in some good training miles this summer and fall and will hopefully set me up for a solid training cycle for Pittsburgh in the spring. Also, Ben said it is just as much about the journey as the goal. So, onward we go!
Thanks so much to Beth for being the spectathlete extraordinaire all weekend!
So, some reflection to come and some adjustments for sure to get me to that sub-3:00 goal.
Thanks to everybody for the kind words!
Well, where to start?
The good:
-My hamstrings didn't cramp during the race
-The weather was nearly perfect (started in the upper 30's, finished in the low 50's)
-I ran under control for the first half (even through 20+ miles), and was on target for 3:10 through 23 miles
The bad:
-My next to last gel went down very slowly
-My final gel really wouldn't go down (and only took in half of it before tossing the gel pack into a garbage can along the course)
-That gel (and pretty much all other items I ingested that morning) got tossed out in three successive heaves about 100 meters apart around mile 24-ish along the riverfront
-While not cramping, my hamstrings were "letting me know they were there" from about mile 6 or 7 to the end. They just felt tight and never got loose (maybe this was a good thing and held me back on my pace, though)
Needless to say, I didn't hit my 3:10 goal.
After the gun went off, we departed city island and I tried to settle in to a 7:15/mile pace. I felt like I was crawling along, trying to NOT go out too fast. The result - 6:52. Ugh! Miles 2 and 3 were just over 7:00. I saw Beth and told her that I was trying to throw on the brakes. Finally, mile 4 and 5 were 7:18 and I was settling in.
As I saw Beth, it was back over to city island with miles 6 and 7 at 7:05's. After leaving city island, the mile 8 sign was missing, but miles 8 and 9 averaged out to 7:19 each. The next three miles were along the riverfront and were in the 7:0x's (with a little bit of a tailwind).
We then veered off the river and up towards the industrial park. I went through the half in just under 1:34. I was hoping for 1:35, but I wasn't all that far ahead of pace (and much more relaxed than the 1:28:30 in Pittsburgh). The least scenic part of the race was along the industrial road with the 18-wheelers. But then we went into the HACC campus (where I saw Beth 3 times) and was feeling great for miles 16 and 17.
Mile 18-20 took us through a park. This was the only hilly portion of the course. They were short, steep ups and downs. Things felt good and, after a 7:25 of a mostly up hill mile, mile 20 was 7:06.
Okay, 10k to go. Mile 21 was 7:35. The legs were starting to feel tired, but I wasn't too concerned. It didn't feel as bad as Pittsburgh. Also, I figured to just back off and fulfill my goal of jogging the whole race. If I didn't hit 3:10, so be it. Mile 22 was 7:42 and the thought, "that's fine" went through my head. Mile 23 slowed down to 8:08 as I'm attempting to put down my final gel.
It didn't go down too well. I forced down maybe a third of it. Then, I finally chucked it into a garbage can because I couldn't take anymore. I'm not sure if it happened before or after the 24-mile marker but I'm definitely sure of what happened. It felt like there was a direct hose from my stomach leading out of my mouth and someone turned the faucet on. With that taken care of in the riverfront park, I shuffled forward. However, after another 100 or so meters, a repeat of what had just happened.
Okay that has to be it, right? Mosey on down the road another 100 or so meters and somehow I hit the triple. How was there anything left in my stomach?
After all of that, the final three miles are 8:58, 11:38, and 11:48. Heck, I even picked up a cramp in my chest as I did the final 0.2 across the bridge (2:41 for the last 0.2).
So much for comfortably jogging into the finish line. Oh well. Final time 3:22:02. At least it was a couple seconds faster than Pittsburgh!
So, it's back to the drawing board. But, like Steve P reminded me on fb, I still got in some good training miles this summer and fall and will hopefully set me up for a solid training cycle for Pittsburgh in the spring. Also, Ben said it is just as much about the journey as the goal. So, onward we go!
Thanks so much to Beth for being the spectathlete extraordinaire all weekend!
So, some reflection to come and some adjustments for sure to get me to that sub-3:00 goal.
Thanks to everybody for the kind words!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Marathon Weekend!
Last weekend we were staying in Harrisburg and the XC teams were racing in Hershey. This weekend, it's my turn to race in the Harrisburg Marathon!
First, about the state XC meet. Our boys ended up a CLOSE 4th (our 153 points were only 21 points from a state championship) and the girls ended up 8th. Great efforts on both ends and a great season!
Back to the marathon, it actually kind of snuck up on me. Not from the standpoint of my training. I was logging all my miles and hitting my speed workout goals since August and all throughout the fall. But, you're just so focused on the schoolyear and the XC season and helping the kids be successful. So, when the races were over last Saturday, I had the realization, "Oh yeah - I'm running a marathon next weekend!"
So, here we go. I think I've mentioned a few times that I'm trying to make this marathon more of a low-key stop along the way to my third attempt at a sub-3 hour marathon next May in Pittsburgh. The goals are a little more simple than the last two attempts in May 2011 and November 2009:
1. Run the entire 26.2 miles (aka NO MUSCLE CRAMPING/SEIZING UP)
2. Finish around 3:10 (7:15 pace)
3. Negative split the first 13.1 vs the 2nd half
With that, I'm hoping for a positive day. The weather looks like it's going to cooperate - starting out in the upper 30's and finishing in the mid-50's with sunny skies all day.
In other news, there's the entire sad story surrounding Jerry Sandusky and the leaders at Penn State who did not do enough to help the situation. Very, very sad. I'll repost the facebook post from Tuesday:
So sad to hear about everything coming out of Penn State. My heart breaks for the young victims, angers at how Jerry Sandusky could allegedly continue those acts over so many years, and is confused over the alleged lack of action from other leaders. A request for the media as the story evolves is that they are more concerned about getting it ACCURATE instead of getting it FIRST.
That's all you can really say. Beyond the grand jury statement we don't know anything else. Because of that, I wish people wouldn't give opinions or speculation on things they don't know about. It was a bad situation and not enough was done. I will be very interested to see what further information comes out and trust that the administrators and the legal system will help sort everything out and do their best to make things right moving forward.
Keeping in perspective that this is all relative that pales in comparison to the victims of the abuse, I feel bad for the Nittany Lion football players. They did not sign up for this. This is not like any other college sports scandal. They did not do drugs or steroids. They did not accept any money, cars, or other illegal benefits. They did not cheat on tests. They did not do anything wrong.
However, they're lumped in with the evil things that Jerry Sandusky did AND they have to find a way to focus and attempt to put their best effort on the field against Nebraska on Saturday. Obviously this is a bad situation. I just ask that people support the players, especially the seniors on their final home game, and keep in mind who were the bad guys with all of this.
Enough of the heavy stuff. Off to pack and then tomorrow off to Pennsylvania's capital to get ready for the 26.2 on Sunday.
First, about the state XC meet. Our boys ended up a CLOSE 4th (our 153 points were only 21 points from a state championship) and the girls ended up 8th. Great efforts on both ends and a great season!
Back to the marathon, it actually kind of snuck up on me. Not from the standpoint of my training. I was logging all my miles and hitting my speed workout goals since August and all throughout the fall. But, you're just so focused on the schoolyear and the XC season and helping the kids be successful. So, when the races were over last Saturday, I had the realization, "Oh yeah - I'm running a marathon next weekend!"
So, here we go. I think I've mentioned a few times that I'm trying to make this marathon more of a low-key stop along the way to my third attempt at a sub-3 hour marathon next May in Pittsburgh. The goals are a little more simple than the last two attempts in May 2011 and November 2009:
1. Run the entire 26.2 miles (aka NO MUSCLE CRAMPING/SEIZING UP)
2. Finish around 3:10 (7:15 pace)
3. Negative split the first 13.1 vs the 2nd half
With that, I'm hoping for a positive day. The weather looks like it's going to cooperate - starting out in the upper 30's and finishing in the mid-50's with sunny skies all day.
In other news, there's the entire sad story surrounding Jerry Sandusky and the leaders at Penn State who did not do enough to help the situation. Very, very sad. I'll repost the facebook post from Tuesday:
So sad to hear about everything coming out of Penn State. My heart breaks for the young victims, angers at how Jerry Sandusky could allegedly continue those acts over so many years, and is confused over the alleged lack of action from other leaders. A request for the media as the story evolves is that they are more concerned about getting it ACCURATE instead of getting it FIRST.
That's all you can really say. Beyond the grand jury statement we don't know anything else. Because of that, I wish people wouldn't give opinions or speculation on things they don't know about. It was a bad situation and not enough was done. I will be very interested to see what further information comes out and trust that the administrators and the legal system will help sort everything out and do their best to make things right moving forward.
Keeping in perspective that this is all relative that pales in comparison to the victims of the abuse, I feel bad for the Nittany Lion football players. They did not sign up for this. This is not like any other college sports scandal. They did not do drugs or steroids. They did not accept any money, cars, or other illegal benefits. They did not cheat on tests. They did not do anything wrong.
However, they're lumped in with the evil things that Jerry Sandusky did AND they have to find a way to focus and attempt to put their best effort on the field against Nebraska on Saturday. Obviously this is a bad situation. I just ask that people support the players, especially the seniors on their final home game, and keep in mind who were the bad guys with all of this.
Enough of the heavy stuff. Off to pack and then tomorrow off to Pennsylvania's capital to get ready for the 26.2 on Sunday.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Scoring Machine
When an individual or a team is referred to as a scoring machine, it usually implies that the person, or team, is capable of producing many points in a game. This could refer to a basketball player putting up 40 points in a game, or a football player scoring several touchdowns. It could refer to a team's "high octane" offense....nah, I won't go there. Especially since Penn State slogged to an ugly 10-7 win.
Anyway, Thursday was our District (WPIAL) Championship and both our boys and girls teams finished in 2nd place. Since the top four move on to the state meet next Saturday, we are packing our bags for Hershey. How both teams got to 2nd place and how the 2nd place was viewed by the team were certainly two different reactions.
Let's just say our boys were at least considered even favorites with our big rival, if not a slight favorite since we had won last week's invitational. End result is that we ended up 2nd by a margin of 50-115. On the girls' side, a team with 3 sisters was the heavy favorite and everybody else was gunning for second. We were probably a little behind another school and perhaps regarded as the third best team. However, our girls had a great day and we ended up 2nd.
Overall, though it was yet another muddy mess. Lots of slop (one of our runners even lost a shoe in the mud!!!!) and I'm sure this snow won't help the state meet course at all. However, the recap of the day at the district meet doesn't reflect back on the title or opening paragraph....or so it seems...
Last week at the previous Thursday's invitational, I decided to forgo my cheering in the final half mile and position myself in a spot to record places of the top boys and girls teams to get a feel for the scoring. The calculations were pretty close, so I decided to enlist the help of my lovely assistant (Beth) and see how well "Team Shutt" could perform counting places and scoring a large high-stakes district final.
The results - I think we're ready to take our show on the road!
Girls' results done by us in black; actual results in bold red
NH - 1-2-4-16-23 = 46
NH - 1-2-4-16-23 = 46
ML - 10-12-13-45-62 = 142
ML - 9-11-12-43-62 = 137
NA - 21-27-33-34-41 = 156
NA - 21-27-33-34-41 = 156
PR - 18-30-38-76-77 = 239
PR - 18-30-38-60-77 = 223
HA - 5-25-40-67-100 = 237
HA - 5-25-40-67-98 = 235
So, other than missing PR's #4, we were pretty much right on. Unless, you consider the fact that we had the wrong 4th place team, or the last team moving on to the state meet....and the fact that it was my alma mater and I told the coach that we scored them as being in (with the big disclaimer that we were just guessing) and they finished 5th.
On to the boys' race. We only scored us and NA because we figured it was only the two of us realistically fighting for the championship:
NA - 1-9-10-11-18 = 49
NA - 1-9-10-11-19 = 50
ML - 8-12-25-26-44 = 115
ML - 8-13-25-26-43 = 115
Not too bad again, but we were just having to keep track of two teams and only had to count up into the 40's (and it shouldn't have even been that high if things would've went better).
This brought me back to my Grad School Days when, as part of my Masters Thesis, I developed an application for the Palm PDA (remember those things?!?!?). The goal of the application was to capture what Industrial Engineers call "time studies." Here's a screen shot of my application:
Okay, so that's not really related to cross country, but since I was dating this gal on Penn State's cross country team (aka Beth), I decided to take a lot of the same code language and create a cross country scoring application that I called XC Score. I have to say it worked pretty well at a couple of the meets I tried it at. I couldn't dig up any screen shots and we gave away the PDA's so it's erased from existence other than I still have the code file from some archaic PDA programming language on my computer.
Just for the fun of it I googled "XC Score" and it turns out that Apple (and the Android) have an app for that.
I'm thinking about downloading and trying the Android app, but not sure how well it will work at the state meet with so many teams, plus I usually position myself out in the middle of the course and miss the finish of the top runners in the field. But, I think I may use it for next year's invitationals.
So, sorry for the boring running-computer post, but it was a fun trip down memory lane for me.
Two weeks until the Harrisburg Marathon! Starting to get a little more focused on that task as the cross country season is winding down.
Anyway, Thursday was our District (WPIAL) Championship and both our boys and girls teams finished in 2nd place. Since the top four move on to the state meet next Saturday, we are packing our bags for Hershey. How both teams got to 2nd place and how the 2nd place was viewed by the team were certainly two different reactions.
Let's just say our boys were at least considered even favorites with our big rival, if not a slight favorite since we had won last week's invitational. End result is that we ended up 2nd by a margin of 50-115. On the girls' side, a team with 3 sisters was the heavy favorite and everybody else was gunning for second. We were probably a little behind another school and perhaps regarded as the third best team. However, our girls had a great day and we ended up 2nd.
Overall, though it was yet another muddy mess. Lots of slop (one of our runners even lost a shoe in the mud!!!!) and I'm sure this snow won't help the state meet course at all. However, the recap of the day at the district meet doesn't reflect back on the title or opening paragraph....or so it seems...
Last week at the previous Thursday's invitational, I decided to forgo my cheering in the final half mile and position myself in a spot to record places of the top boys and girls teams to get a feel for the scoring. The calculations were pretty close, so I decided to enlist the help of my lovely assistant (Beth) and see how well "Team Shutt" could perform counting places and scoring a large high-stakes district final.
The results - I think we're ready to take our show on the road!
Girls' results done by us in black; actual results in bold red
NH - 1-2-4-16-23 = 46
NH - 1-2-4-16-23 = 46
ML - 10-12-13-45-62 = 142
ML - 9-11-12-43-62 = 137
NA - 21-27-33-34-41 = 156
NA - 21-27-33-34-41 = 156
PR - 18-30-38-76-77 = 239
PR - 18-30-38-60-77 = 223
HA - 5-25-40-67-100 = 237
HA - 5-25-40-67-98 = 235
So, other than missing PR's #4, we were pretty much right on. Unless, you consider the fact that we had the wrong 4th place team, or the last team moving on to the state meet....and the fact that it was my alma mater and I told the coach that we scored them as being in (with the big disclaimer that we were just guessing) and they finished 5th.
On to the boys' race. We only scored us and NA because we figured it was only the two of us realistically fighting for the championship:
NA - 1-9-10-11-18 = 49
NA - 1-9-10-11-19 = 50
ML - 8-12-25-26-44 = 115
ML - 8-13-25-26-43 = 115
Not too bad again, but we were just having to keep track of two teams and only had to count up into the 40's (and it shouldn't have even been that high if things would've went better).
This brought me back to my Grad School Days when, as part of my Masters Thesis, I developed an application for the Palm PDA (remember those things?!?!?). The goal of the application was to capture what Industrial Engineers call "time studies." Here's a screen shot of my application:
Okay, so that's not really related to cross country, but since I was dating this gal on Penn State's cross country team (aka Beth), I decided to take a lot of the same code language and create a cross country scoring application that I called XC Score. I have to say it worked pretty well at a couple of the meets I tried it at. I couldn't dig up any screen shots and we gave away the PDA's so it's erased from existence other than I still have the code file from some archaic PDA programming language on my computer.
Just for the fun of it I googled "XC Score" and it turns out that Apple (and the Android) have an app for that.
I'm thinking about downloading and trying the Android app, but not sure how well it will work at the state meet with so many teams, plus I usually position myself out in the middle of the course and miss the finish of the top runners in the field. But, I think I may use it for next year's invitationals.
So, sorry for the boring running-computer post, but it was a fun trip down memory lane for me.
Two weeks until the Harrisburg Marathon! Starting to get a little more focused on that task as the cross country season is winding down.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Kona-rific!
...and other happenings in the past few weeks.
First of all, a photo from my endeavor at the Great Race taken by Beth.
Since the Great Race, there was a little trip to Hawaii. However, before I got out there to join Beth in the 80-degree temps on the Big Island, I endured a 40's and rainy weekend, where we were at the Central Catholic Invitational. My pants and shoes are evidence of it.
Next, it was a few days of school and then across the Pacific to Hawaii.
Beth had an awesome race (as you can read about on her blog). My day started with dropping Beth and her mom off at the start area and parking the car. Then, I met up with them and we said our good lucks and good byes to Beth and she went in for the swim start. We saw her come out of the water and then back past us 8 or so miles into the bike. We let her know she was in 5th place in her age group.
Then, we had some time to kill, so back to the rental house with the rest of the crew. Somehow, it worked out that the PSU-Iowa game was the "regional" college football game on ABC, so I was able to catch the 2nd and 3rd quarters. (Side note: PSU is somehow 6-1. It's been ugly, but 6-1 nonetheless while Pitt's "High Octane" team mustered 100 yds of offense last week....hee, hee).
We went back down to position ourselves for the run before the pro's came through. We (Beth's mom and I) were around mile 2/9 (ish?) on the run and had a chance to see the pro race unfold. Then, some more waiting and random photos like this one to kill the time.
Beth came through and looked great. After a stop at McDonald's for a Mango-Pineapple McSmoothie, I went up on to the Queen K (around mile 24) to cheer everybody in.
By the time we got back to the house and also knowing that I was going to do a 19 mile run the next day, I opted to go to bed while the rest of the Kona crew headed back down for the midnight finish line.
So about my runs in Kona. Between Thursday and Monday, I got four runs in and totaled 39 miles (plus my running around on race day). Each time, I was too stubborn to drive anywhere, so I finished on a *little bit* of an up hill. It looks so innocent on a google map....
...however it just shoots up and up and up from the Queen K.
Here's the gate and the entrance looking back towards the Pacific.
Then, up to the first stop sign.
And you get to the first stop sign and go up more.
Up to the next little circle.
Through the circle and up some more.
Halfway up the "up some more."
Finally, make a left and get a little bit of flat relief.
Hang a right up the hill (Do you see the angle of the hill?????)
And then around the corner.
Make it to the driveway (which, of course, is uphill).
Make it to the front of the house (which, of course, you have to scale steps!!)
Whew. I'm tired reliving that!
One of the good things of being up on the hill was that we had an awesome view of the sunset each evening from our place.
We said goodbye to our gecko friend and packed up on Monday (in addition to an interesting day at the Kona hospital for Beth's blisters on her feet).
Our time in Hawaii wrapped up on Monday night with an 11pm red-eye flight through Phoenix, then back home. By 4 pm on Tuesday, we were back to the Pittsburgh International Airport. After a stop at Chipotle in Robinson with Chad & Jen, we got home and started to get transitioned back to reality.
Back to school on Wendesday and all of the sleeping on the plane must have worked. It wasn't too bad getting up at 5am (or 11pm Hawaii) the next few days.
The one down side was the pile of homework and tests that needed to be graded since I left...
Saturday was the Buffalo Creek Half Marathon. I've run it twice before - 2009 and 2008. I was just getting into my long distance shape back in 2008 and was pumped with my sub-1:20. In 2009, I was in pretty good shape a month out from the Philly marathon and somehow averaged 5:50 miles. My goal for this year was to be in the neighborhood of 6:00-ish pace. However, as the race drew nearer (and I was feeling sluggish with an 8:30 pace run on Thursday) in my head it was becoming 6:10 pace....maybe 6:15 pace.....okay maybe just keep it under 6:30 pace...
You get the drift.
Fortunately, I ran into Beth's Ballou Skies teammate Jason Jacobs at the start line and he was shooting to run 6:00-ish pace, too. So, off we went and we ran the whole thing side by side as, what we termed, a really fast and hard partner tempo run.
Before getting to the splits, just like the Great Race, a disclaimer about the race being point-to-point and net downhill:
Here were the splits:
5:44
6:09 (11:53)
6:01 (17:54)
6:05 (23:59)
11:50 (35:49) - mile marker missing
5:49 (41:38)
6:02 (47:40)
6:09 (53:49)
6:07 (59:56)
6:13 (1:06:09)
6:08 (1:12:17)
6:42 for the final 1.1 for 1:18:59 and 6:02 pace.
I'll take it coming off of all the travel and everything. It was really great having Jason along. I don't think I could have kept going that fast for that long without having him push me. Thanks, Jason!
Check out what Jason's GPS said we did:
A 14.5 mile half marathon at 5:27 pace. Those GPS devices were always a little fishy out in the wilderness...
Five other Lebo friends came along and ran and had outstanding days as well, including a couple of first-time half marathon people (not pictured)
A BIG thanks to Beth who, during her Post-Kona recovery, got up early on a cold, blustery Saturday and was Team LEBO's driver, coach, equipment manager, cheeleader, and photographer!
Up next is the finish to the cross country season. We have the Tri-State Invitational Thursday (a preview for districts), then WPIAL's (districts) next Thursday. The top four teams then go on to the state meet on November 5th. We've had a good year on both the boys and girls side, so we shall see how things stack up at WPIAL's and states. Could this be our year?
First of all, a photo from my endeavor at the Great Race taken by Beth.
Since the Great Race, there was a little trip to Hawaii. However, before I got out there to join Beth in the 80-degree temps on the Big Island, I endured a 40's and rainy weekend, where we were at the Central Catholic Invitational. My pants and shoes are evidence of it.
Next, it was a few days of school and then across the Pacific to Hawaii.
Beth had an awesome race (as you can read about on her blog). My day started with dropping Beth and her mom off at the start area and parking the car. Then, I met up with them and we said our good lucks and good byes to Beth and she went in for the swim start. We saw her come out of the water and then back past us 8 or so miles into the bike. We let her know she was in 5th place in her age group.
Then, we had some time to kill, so back to the rental house with the rest of the crew. Somehow, it worked out that the PSU-Iowa game was the "regional" college football game on ABC, so I was able to catch the 2nd and 3rd quarters. (Side note: PSU is somehow 6-1. It's been ugly, but 6-1 nonetheless while Pitt's "High Octane" team mustered 100 yds of offense last week....hee, hee).
We went back down to position ourselves for the run before the pro's came through. We (Beth's mom and I) were around mile 2/9 (ish?) on the run and had a chance to see the pro race unfold. Then, some more waiting and random photos like this one to kill the time.
Beth came through and looked great. After a stop at McDonald's for a Mango-Pineapple McSmoothie, I went up on to the Queen K (around mile 24) to cheer everybody in.
By the time we got back to the house and also knowing that I was going to do a 19 mile run the next day, I opted to go to bed while the rest of the Kona crew headed back down for the midnight finish line.
So about my runs in Kona. Between Thursday and Monday, I got four runs in and totaled 39 miles (plus my running around on race day). Each time, I was too stubborn to drive anywhere, so I finished on a *little bit* of an up hill. It looks so innocent on a google map....
...however it just shoots up and up and up from the Queen K.
Here's the gate and the entrance looking back towards the Pacific.
Then, up to the first stop sign.
And you get to the first stop sign and go up more.
Up to the next little circle.
Through the circle and up some more.
Halfway up the "up some more."
Finally, make a left and get a little bit of flat relief.
Hang a right up the hill (Do you see the angle of the hill?????)
And then around the corner.
Make it to the driveway (which, of course, is uphill).
Make it to the front of the house (which, of course, you have to scale steps!!)
Whew. I'm tired reliving that!
One of the good things of being up on the hill was that we had an awesome view of the sunset each evening from our place.
We said goodbye to our gecko friend and packed up on Monday (in addition to an interesting day at the Kona hospital for Beth's blisters on her feet).
Our time in Hawaii wrapped up on Monday night with an 11pm red-eye flight through Phoenix, then back home. By 4 pm on Tuesday, we were back to the Pittsburgh International Airport. After a stop at Chipotle in Robinson with Chad & Jen, we got home and started to get transitioned back to reality.
Back to school on Wendesday and all of the sleeping on the plane must have worked. It wasn't too bad getting up at 5am (or 11pm Hawaii) the next few days.
The one down side was the pile of homework and tests that needed to be graded since I left...
Saturday was the Buffalo Creek Half Marathon. I've run it twice before - 2009 and 2008. I was just getting into my long distance shape back in 2008 and was pumped with my sub-1:20. In 2009, I was in pretty good shape a month out from the Philly marathon and somehow averaged 5:50 miles. My goal for this year was to be in the neighborhood of 6:00-ish pace. However, as the race drew nearer (and I was feeling sluggish with an 8:30 pace run on Thursday) in my head it was becoming 6:10 pace....maybe 6:15 pace.....okay maybe just keep it under 6:30 pace...
You get the drift.
Fortunately, I ran into Beth's Ballou Skies teammate Jason Jacobs at the start line and he was shooting to run 6:00-ish pace, too. So, off we went and we ran the whole thing side by side as, what we termed, a really fast and hard partner tempo run.
Before getting to the splits, just like the Great Race, a disclaimer about the race being point-to-point and net downhill:
Here were the splits:
5:44
6:09 (11:53)
6:01 (17:54)
6:05 (23:59)
11:50 (35:49) - mile marker missing
5:49 (41:38)
6:02 (47:40)
6:09 (53:49)
6:07 (59:56)
6:13 (1:06:09)
6:08 (1:12:17)
6:42 for the final 1.1 for 1:18:59 and 6:02 pace.
I'll take it coming off of all the travel and everything. It was really great having Jason along. I don't think I could have kept going that fast for that long without having him push me. Thanks, Jason!
Check out what Jason's GPS said we did:
A 14.5 mile half marathon at 5:27 pace. Those GPS devices were always a little fishy out in the wilderness...
Five other Lebo friends came along and ran and had outstanding days as well, including a couple of first-time half marathon people (not pictured)
A BIG thanks to Beth who, during her Post-Kona recovery, got up early on a cold, blustery Saturday and was Team LEBO's driver, coach, equipment manager, cheeleader, and photographer!
Up next is the finish to the cross country season. We have the Tri-State Invitational Thursday (a preview for districts), then WPIAL's (districts) next Thursday. The top four teams then go on to the state meet on November 5th. We've had a good year on both the boys and girls side, so we shall see how things stack up at WPIAL's and states. Could this be our year?
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Keeping Busy
Things sure seem like they're busy in the fall. I was reflecting in the car on my 4-hour drive home from Hershey on Saturday. Now, I know that all the triathlon friends out there have most days like this but it was interesting to map out how this week went down:
Tuesday - up before 5am, 7 mi w/ 5x600 on the track, school, xc practice, pick up Beth's bike from Big Bang Bicycles (the best bike shop in the entire world!), eat dinner, go to bed.
Wednesday - up before 5am, 11 mi before school, school, xc practice, real quick dinner at Chick-Fil-A, represent Elizabethtown College at the Mars HS College fair (6:30-8:00), get home, & go to bed.
Thursday - up before 5am, 5+ miles, school, xc practice, dinner (DiGiorno Pizza night!!!), cut grass (it gets dark quicker now!), clean up & go to bed.
Friday - up before 5am, 5+ miles, school, xc practice, rush over to the South Side to pick up my Great Race packet (which actually was amazingly efficient), actually home before 7 (I was fearing worse with the Friday traffic & picking up the packet after work on Friday), dinner (Beef taco skillet - google it, it's a kraft recipe. yum!), clean the house, & go to bed.
Saturday - up before 5am, leave before 6am for Hershey. Watch our high school guys have a good day at the PIAA Foundation meet, drive back to western pa, make it to the Monroeville Chick-Fil-A to meet Beth by 5:30, eat dinner, and off to Saturday night church service at Cornerstone at 6pm (or 6:05-ish). Stop for a DQ blizzard on the way home, set out the Great Race race gear and get to bed.
Needless to say, it was one of those weeks. However, like we told the guys about the bus ride out to Hershey before their race, just go out and get the job done in the race. So, that was my goal for the Great Race.
Annual disclaimer about the topography of the Great Race course:
I aimed to park at the start line so I didn't have to worry about shuttles and had my car to put stuff in right before the race. Turns out my triathlon influence caused me to get there so early that I was there before ANY other car....and I was worried for a minute that we couldn't park along Dallas Ave for some reason. So, I circled around and parked on the side street and hung out there for a few minutes. After walking around, some cars did show up so I moved my car onto Dallas Ave so it was a little closer.
I met up with cousin K and we warmed up. We lined up in the 'seeded' area, but I still got caught up in traffic when the gun went off. K was able to sneak through it but the gap closed before I was able to pass. Not aggressive enough So, swing right and then around, back up to K and then up the first hill.
My target for mile 1 was 5:40 and I went through in 5:38 but expended a little more than I had hoped due to the weaving and congestion. Mile 2 is downhill and I split a 5:26 (with a target of 5:30). I came through Oakland and mile 3 and then split the 5k at 17:29 (on pace for the sub-35:00). But, things just weren't as solid on the 2nd 5k. Mile 4 was just sluggish at 5:36 (shooting for 5:30), but I figured I could maybe make up time in mile 5 up the hill by Duquesne with my marathon base underneath me, but split a 6:02 (shooting for 5:55). Mile 6 was a downhill 5:35, but I did 5:25 last year.
Put it all together for a 35:31. Not quite the sub-35, but it was a little warm out I guess. It seemed like a lot of people I talked to ran slower than they had hoped. I finished in 37th place, which is better than my last two appearances at the Great Race (both in the 40's).
A big thanks to Beth who was all over the course riding her bike to cheer me on as part of her long training day. Big thanks for all the support!
Finally, a shout out to Running for Laptops and thank you to all those who supported the cause. Click on the link in the margin to find out more about that great group!
So, time for a more routine week.....oh wait, Beth's leaving for Kona on Friday and I'm leaving a week from Wednesday. Perhaps more fun in store this week!
Tuesday - up before 5am, 7 mi w/ 5x600 on the track, school, xc practice, pick up Beth's bike from Big Bang Bicycles (the best bike shop in the entire world!), eat dinner, go to bed.
Wednesday - up before 5am, 11 mi before school, school, xc practice, real quick dinner at Chick-Fil-A, represent Elizabethtown College at the Mars HS College fair (6:30-8:00), get home, & go to bed.
Thursday - up before 5am, 5+ miles, school, xc practice, dinner (DiGiorno Pizza night!!!), cut grass (it gets dark quicker now!), clean up & go to bed.
Friday - up before 5am, 5+ miles, school, xc practice, rush over to the South Side to pick up my Great Race packet (which actually was amazingly efficient), actually home before 7 (I was fearing worse with the Friday traffic & picking up the packet after work on Friday), dinner (Beef taco skillet - google it, it's a kraft recipe. yum!), clean the house, & go to bed.
Saturday - up before 5am, leave before 6am for Hershey. Watch our high school guys have a good day at the PIAA Foundation meet, drive back to western pa, make it to the Monroeville Chick-Fil-A to meet Beth by 5:30, eat dinner, and off to Saturday night church service at Cornerstone at 6pm (or 6:05-ish). Stop for a DQ blizzard on the way home, set out the Great Race race gear and get to bed.
Needless to say, it was one of those weeks. However, like we told the guys about the bus ride out to Hershey before their race, just go out and get the job done in the race. So, that was my goal for the Great Race.
Annual disclaimer about the topography of the Great Race course:
I aimed to park at the start line so I didn't have to worry about shuttles and had my car to put stuff in right before the race. Turns out my triathlon influence caused me to get there so early that I was there before ANY other car....and I was worried for a minute that we couldn't park along Dallas Ave for some reason. So, I circled around and parked on the side street and hung out there for a few minutes. After walking around, some cars did show up so I moved my car onto Dallas Ave so it was a little closer.
I met up with cousin K and we warmed up. We lined up in the 'seeded' area, but I still got caught up in traffic when the gun went off. K was able to sneak through it but the gap closed before I was able to pass. Not aggressive enough So, swing right and then around, back up to K and then up the first hill.
My target for mile 1 was 5:40 and I went through in 5:38 but expended a little more than I had hoped due to the weaving and congestion. Mile 2 is downhill and I split a 5:26 (with a target of 5:30). I came through Oakland and mile 3 and then split the 5k at 17:29 (on pace for the sub-35:00). But, things just weren't as solid on the 2nd 5k. Mile 4 was just sluggish at 5:36 (shooting for 5:30), but I figured I could maybe make up time in mile 5 up the hill by Duquesne with my marathon base underneath me, but split a 6:02 (shooting for 5:55). Mile 6 was a downhill 5:35, but I did 5:25 last year.
Put it all together for a 35:31. Not quite the sub-35, but it was a little warm out I guess. It seemed like a lot of people I talked to ran slower than they had hoped. I finished in 37th place, which is better than my last two appearances at the Great Race (both in the 40's).
A big thanks to Beth who was all over the course riding her bike to cheer me on as part of her long training day. Big thanks for all the support!
Finally, a shout out to Running for Laptops and thank you to all those who supported the cause. Click on the link in the margin to find out more about that great group!
So, time for a more routine week.....oh wait, Beth's leaving for Kona on Friday and I'm leaving a week from Wednesday. Perhaps more fun in store this week!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Rolling along...
How did 3 weeks of school already pass? Wow! Time flies when you're busy.
Let's see, since last time:
Beth, her mom, and Ben went off to Las Vegas for the 70.3 World Championships. Beth came away with 2nd in her age group and 3rd overall amateur in the world! Ben came away with a lot of great experiences and represented himself very well out there. Big things are to come for this guy. Look out.
I was tracking the entire day from the comforts of my couch.
You see, I was also slated to race this weekend - in the tourist destination of....Harrisburg. However, mother nature decided to have other plans for my half marathon. The remnants of a tropical storm drenched the central and eastern parts of the state. The half marathon was supposed to start on City Island and run along the river. However, the river swallowed up the course. So, instead I was tracking the triathletes and watching the Steelers (and did a 12-mile tempo run on our trail instead).
The only difficulty was that Beth's chip wasn't registering as she went over one of the mats. So, I went from seeing her being 2nd in her AG off the bike to seeing 25 or so people pass by the next timing mat without any report on her. Fortunately, the next mat caught her and we were back in business. I'm on the phone with Beth's mom feeding her updates to pass along to Beth (just like as if I was there I guess) and Beth did a great job of holding on to 2nd place!
Our boys and girls cross country teams are off to a good start. It's really fun to watch all of the hard work pay off and apparently a high school running site is noticing. Hopefully they can keep the hunger and the drive to be successful as continue on through the rest of September, into October and the first Saturday of November for the state meet.
The next race for me is the Great Race on Sunday. I've been in the low 35's the last two times I've ran it. I'm wondering if I can sneak a 34 in front of my name this year? I guess we shall see.
Regardless, I hope you can help me exceed my goal of raising funds to purchase laptops for youth who age out of the foster care system through the group Running For Laptops. No donation is too small! Thank you for your help!
Let's see, since last time:
Beth, her mom, and Ben went off to Las Vegas for the 70.3 World Championships. Beth came away with 2nd in her age group and 3rd overall amateur in the world! Ben came away with a lot of great experiences and represented himself very well out there. Big things are to come for this guy. Look out.
I was tracking the entire day from the comforts of my couch.
You see, I was also slated to race this weekend - in the tourist destination of....Harrisburg. However, mother nature decided to have other plans for my half marathon. The remnants of a tropical storm drenched the central and eastern parts of the state. The half marathon was supposed to start on City Island and run along the river. However, the river swallowed up the course. So, instead I was tracking the triathletes and watching the Steelers (and did a 12-mile tempo run on our trail instead).
The only difficulty was that Beth's chip wasn't registering as she went over one of the mats. So, I went from seeing her being 2nd in her AG off the bike to seeing 25 or so people pass by the next timing mat without any report on her. Fortunately, the next mat caught her and we were back in business. I'm on the phone with Beth's mom feeding her updates to pass along to Beth (just like as if I was there I guess) and Beth did a great job of holding on to 2nd place!
Our boys and girls cross country teams are off to a good start. It's really fun to watch all of the hard work pay off and apparently a high school running site is noticing. Hopefully they can keep the hunger and the drive to be successful as continue on through the rest of September, into October and the first Saturday of November for the state meet.
The next race for me is the Great Race on Sunday. I've been in the low 35's the last two times I've ran it. I'm wondering if I can sneak a 34 in front of my name this year? I guess we shall see.
Regardless, I hope you can help me exceed my goal of raising funds to purchase laptops for youth who age out of the foster care system through the group Running For Laptops. No donation is too small! Thank you for your help!
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