Forgive me

Forgive me fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters for I have failed. This morning's run was about as wee-wee poor as it has ever been. Why? Let me whine. Please!

• It was brutally humid after raining last night for the first time in a month
• It was mid- to upper-70s
• I had more dental work earlier in the week
• I had Week #2 of the natives-are-restless protest against the district because of the secondary school start times flip (and I do mean protest; as in 100 marching on the district office and 65 more walking out of classes at one high school)
• I ran intervals for the first time since February on Tuesday. They felt good but I didn't do as many as I planned.
• Thursday's run was a sled ride through shallow water
• I am an old man
• I have been waking up at 4 a.m. every day and having to "re-run" my runs in my head to get back to sleep for a short spell
  
• Runner Susan is using voodoo again

That's about it for now. If I think of any more complaints I will spare you until I need them again. If I had run the Trees 5K yesterday, that would have been an excellent excuse; but I didn't.

Today was supposed to be a roll-back 10-11 miler. Down 2-3 miles from last week. How could that be hard? Augh! I was walking by mile 3. I turned in to do just six for the day and finished with four walk breaks and a 1:10 time. I was so dead in the legs.

So I needed a pick-me-up; two in fact. I went to Starbucks for a Grande Americano. That helped. Then I went to Publix to sit for a free blood pressure test. With West Point son dealing with high blood pressure (170/110!!!) and learning my dad's been on BP meds for 35 years, I felt the urge to check mine. It had been six months or so. I wasn't worried. Just curious.

Pump me up. Pinch it. Let it out. Aghhhhh. 104/59. Boy was that nice. About as low as mine has ever been. Question: Doctor, do blood pressure readings typically read lower after exercise?

Making the most of May

Looking back at history I have been a lousy May runner. It always seems to be a slacker time of year for me. Not this year. I am on pace to top 100 miles of running after my 13.5 miler this morning. I usually do not put down that many miles unless I am in serious training for something. Nada. Just determined to maintain a higher long run base level.

Today was mid 70s, overcast and humid. There were four new runners at the Orlando Runners Club meeting this morning. 7 a.m. Park Avenue. Three were local and one was a visitor from Ft. Collins, CO. She was fast and looking to run 18 miles today. Ha! Well we put her with Dave who could run with her. She had a soggy piece of paper with directions in case she got lost. She was nice and friendly so everybody helped out.

I veered off the course after nine miles taking a left instead of a right to make sure I had no choice but going the distance I had set out to run. I was resigned to doing some run/walk sequencing because of the heat and for trying to run with Ms. Ft. Collins for a while. I survived. With just one run during the week last week, I was happy to get it done.

Time to put in some speed work this week, just to remember how I like it. Maybe a ladder up and down.

I am having doze-off visions of running new routes in Rhode Island this July/August. I arrive too late for the Blessing of the Fleet 10 Miler but there's a 4-mile run to look forward to. (Did I write about this already? It seems I did).

Anyway, school is winding down. Just a couple more weeks. We have had our share of controversy with $33 million in budget cuts set for next year. One remedy has been to flip the start time of middle and high schools so that the middles start at 7:30 and the highs at 9:30. WE can cut out 37 buses, drivers, fuel and maintenance with the move.

Needless to say, the natives are very restless. What time does high school start where you live? I am thinking the high schoolers will benefit from sleeping later, given that they stay up later.

More of the same

Since I dialed back in April I have allowed myself to heal and recover. I highly recommend it.

This was the first week since early March that I topped 20 miles for the week. I pulled off a 5 a 6 and a 13 (I found a penny running this morning). It was good to get those miles in because summer heat is already upon us and I need to stay on top of that wave so my endurance can hold its own and not get beaten down. A tough challenge; I assure you.

I have made my hotel reservations for Chicago and flight reservations for Rhode Island vacation. The last travel task is to book flights to Chicago.

My weight has been an issue here in Thin Trade Land. I remember in 2006 for the Miami Marathon I weighed 150. A year ago I was around 155 maybe. These days it's either side of 160. I know if I cut out a few indulgent items in my diet it would get better but I am not hurting by it and certainly not looking anything close to portly. I'll let it ride until summer when Chicago training gets serious.

I hope to run (with/into) Jeanne, Susie, formerly of Finally Running fame, and Peter of DC Spinster fame over the Fourth. That could be worth some extended blogging with photos.

Show me the money

The weather outside is just about perfect for running. I only got one run in last week but my legs felt remarkably good after going six miles Wednesday morning. Today it took too long for the Garmin to find satellites (is that because I have all my runs since December stored in the Garmin?) and the crowd took off and got about a half mile ahead of me before I could move.

I caught up to the slowest trio of runners three times. Once when they took a water break, again after I stopped to walk and talk with an old friend out walking her dog; and finally after they took a shortcut and I caught them again.

I went 12.5 miles this morning just to see if I could. I could. Felt good. I think I will start banking some long runs before I start training for Chicago. The fasties I see on Sundays are already doing 20 milers for a race in July. That's some serious base.

Show me the money!! Okay. You know how when you run, invariably you are going to see some loose change lying on the road. I mean, it happens, right? It does to me all the time. My question to you --- Do you stop to pick up loose change?

A. 0-50% of the time
B. 50-90% of the time
C 90-99% of the time
D. Every time!

Now that was awesome

My running week was more normal. I went five easy miles Tuesday, had a race on Thursday night and ran my typical Sunday 10 today.

The race was notable because I ran on a team. 10,700 runners laced them up for the Run the City Corporate 5K. Most of the entrants were walkers but the purpose was to develop healthier corporate employees. CEOs and seeded runners got to start at the front. Then blue tagged runners in front of pink tagged walkers.

I knew the course and security weaknesses so did my warm up around the block from the stadium where it started and - Oh! - my warm up finished at the front of the race corrals so I slipped in the crowd with others I know and waited for the start.

At the gun the road opened wide for me and I fell in at my own comfortable pace. The first half mile looped around a lake where you could see back to the start where there were still hundreds of runners shuffling across the start line. I was grateful for my sneakiness.

I had a massage earlier on Thursday, the first in months. Running the race just didn't feel like what I wanted to do so I did not kick it hard. My Garmin died a mile in too. I crossed the finish with the clock reading 24:59.

I was the #2 male on the school district's co-ed four person team (2+2). We were good enough to win the division title with a combined 1:41:56. We beat five other teams!

Today. Today was awesome. I woke up late with less than 30 minutes to dress, prep and be downtown for the a.m. run. I made it in time and really had no idea how I'd feel. Charline asked what pace I wanted to go this morning. I said I had no idea; whatever the road gave me.

We headed out at a quick 8:30 mile pace and pretty much kept it up throughout the run. Every time we tried to slow down a friendly fastie would fall in with us and pull us along. We covered the route in less than 1:30 which is always a good time for me. I was impressed with myself. I also noticed that my hips were looser than they've been in a long long time. I credit Hank and the massage I had on Thursday.

The day got better after I came home, showered, woke up Mrs. T, had breakfast, walked the dogs and packed the car. We headed to the beach and had an absolutely glorious day in the sun and water. Neither of us went swimming (jellyfish) but there were plenty of surfers to watch. And, of course, every surfer scene has its requisite brigade of bikinis. For the record, I read five sections of the paper and took a nap too.

Driving over and back to the coast with the top down in the cabriolet was totally fun.

What? Back so fast.

While I have the chance I will just pop on and say I went to run this morning after many too many refreshing cups of beer at the annual neighborhood party yesterday. There was some Man Rule that you can't leave until the keg is dry. I did my fair share.

I was almost late to Park Avenue today but they were still there when I snuck up on them. Of course, that darned Garmin was fussy about synching with satellites again so they left without me while I stared at the stupid bar creep evvvvvvvver so slowly across the watch face.

Then as I started, fasty Kim started too from not too far behind. She wanted to chat since she was running alone. Gentleman that I am, I kept up with her for a mile and a half before I couldn't even talk, much less breathe. Fortunately we caught some slower folks who gave me the excuse to ratchet down.

Ed and I ended up doing the route together, cutting a few corners here and there. When we had reached eight miles Kim caught up to us (on her ninth mile) and pulled us along for a half mile or so until Ed and I keeled over next to a water fountain while she pranced on. Frisky 40 year olds. I'll tell you; they are too much.

Now it's time to prep for the NBA (Magic) playoff game. I may have to have some more of that really good frothy stuff.

13 days later he sends up a post

To prove I am still here.


I could have written last weekend but life happens.


Since we last visited my last remaining link to you died. Don't feel bad but you were not the ones who came to mind right away when the laptop died.

No, I had a thought about how I would send a note with my tax extension request to tell them my hard drive ate the return and I would not be able to pay them all the money I owe them. You see, two Sundays ago I had put the finishing touches on my return, shut down, then awoke that next morn to find that god-awful message we all hate: No root found, or something like that.

Then a week ago Tuesday night a call from cadet world was full of news that kept me and Mrs. T tossing and turning. No details to share yet but I had to be in Jacksonville by 10 the next morning. My tooth was still tender. The taxes weren't done. Can you imagine a better reason to get off my butt and go run?

I did a very easy jog along the St. Johns River from the Hyatt to the Jaguars stadium and back. Did you know the St. Johns is the only North American River that flows north?

Last weekend I went to plan B and used my son's laptop to reload Turbo Tax and completely redo my taxes. In the course of that I had a few positives: my enclosure for the old Acer laptop hard drive hooked up fine and gave me access to my old tax returns and much more. After finishing the taxes I thought about what else I had lost and went to my Web IDrive site where I found everything I thought I may have lost including the tax return that died with the second HP laptop.

Things were improving.

I proved to myself that I can still run 10 miles last Sunday. I skipped running until Thursday and ran a ladder of repeats at the track (200-400-600-800 and down). Today I woke up very early and my mind and body told me to get up and run again so I did another easy run of six miles.

Running thoughts of late:

• Stretching really matters most when you're not in peak form.
• Conditioning levels can drop quickly when you slack off.
• More aches and pains reveal themselves when you're not running regularly.
• Going really slowly can allow you to run just about any distance.
• Negative splits give you the best feelings.
• Garmins are very fickle about how long they need to synchronize with satellites.
• Clif Bloks can give you cavities if you don't wash and rinse your mouth well (theory).
• Newspapers appeal to older demographics and people with above average intelligence. So why don't they cater to runners and carry more stories and results from local races (much less national events)?
• The only Florida student who scored a perfect 36 on his ACT exams this year goes to our local high school. He is on the cross country/track team. Nice.

Jeanne's Audi: the top does not leak after many ups and downs. Mrs. T has allowed me to drive it the last week. I like it a lot. I keep wondering when Jeanne is running/biking/swimming by to pick it up for her turn.