Incommunicado

Is that how you spell it? That's what I am. At home I have two laptops and a PC. All three are non-functional. The HP laptop locked itself up Saturday morning because, I believe, I downloaded a Windows update a few days back that did not like my XP license. So while I can get into safe mode I cannot see any of my files. And since I back up my files only once every disaster (usually afterwards), I have lost all running records since early February.
Thank goodness for the blog to recover some events.
So today I ran 10 miles with Mary who ran Boston two weeks ago and our friend Jane. We ran fairly fast, all the while cussing the heat and deciding we need to start at 6:30 in the future. We did the 10 in 1:30:30.
Now I have a week of figuring out how to get these jokers running again or be the consummate American consumer and (a) put them in a closet or (b) throw them out and (c) go buy something brand new. What do you think?

Flying time

I wonder where the week went.

I got up early every day (4:54 exactly, it seems). Tuesday I dressed to run and then sat at the laptop until it was too late to run.

Wednesday I passed on the laptop and headed straight for the door where I found the paper and had to read about how my day at work was going to be a tad more demanding. Gosh, I love the media. My run was shortened to an easy 4-miler. It was still a nice day.

The important thing is that somewhere back between now and then (last Sunday) I signed up for the New York Marathon lottery for which I expect Runner Susan will also enter, as she agreed. She still has time but she has to make the commitment. And when she does, we will only have about a 50% chance of making it legitimately. If that doesn't work I will work on plan B which is playing the "who do I know" game until we can run.

You know how I am slave to the numbers. Well I have run the 10-mile Sunday loop so often that I can now start tracking the top times for the distance. Why did I not sense that last Sunday was the best ever? What usually takes me 1:30-1:40 was done in 1:28. Wow.

I am busy now trying to decide when to come north to Rhode Island for vacation. I have contacted all my childhood buddies to canvas them for their time in our secret hideaway. One more response and I will be buying plane tickets. Come on Laura! I want to run to Misquamicut.

Was that the last?

I suspect many of you in North America are relishing the return of spring weather and having glorious runs today. It was spectacular in Florida this morning too. Nice for a little 10 miler with 25 of my best buddies; but I have this premonition that it's almost over. One of these Saturday nights I'll check the forecast and it'll say low of 75-80 tonight and high in the 90s tomorrow, with a 90% chance of afternoon thunderstorms .... from now through October. Such is life in Florida.

Today I was up at 600 to feel perfect temps in the high 50s. The crowd downtown at 700 was the biggest ever. Our "guest runners" this morning were from Los Angeles. Rachel and Ed found us on the Web site and are here for a week. They were doing their last long run before a half marathon next weekend out there in the golden west. I mentioned Bex to them but her fame had not reached them yet.

The run took on three parts today. I ran with the Rachel from LA, the twins, Tim and Sal the first 4 miles in blazing time. The second leg was with the musicians, Seth (who's runnning Nashville next week) and Chris. The last three miles were with Dave the Welshman. All in all I was very pleased with my heart rate and time. I never labored and everything felt smooth, despite the incredible neck crick I woke up with yesterday that was still there a little this morning. [Sherlene! Massage! Stat!] My finish time was 1:28, a competitive 8:47 pace.

The run was followed by a visit to Starbuck's, a scan of the morning paper, encouraging words to Runner Susan to get out running today; and a healthy dose of yard work. I am done for the day and ready for a cold one. Carry on friends.

Thorny issue. I now have a sense for how those guys in the medieval wars felt when a crossbow arrow went into your leg. It is paralyzing. In my case it was nothing more than a half inch thorn from a bush (I measured it) that went straight in and left nothing to pull on to get it out. I tried to walk to the house for some tweezers or something and I couldn't walk. It must have hit a nerve. I was amazed. Not a pleasant predicament but, then again, I had a "nurse" to ease my pains and dig it out. She used that pre-surgery orange stuff to minimize the infection. Thanks Mrs. T.

Top Three Under 24:00

After today's race, all my future 5K times have to be under 23:40 to make my Top Three PRs. I pulled out a 23:37 tonight in warm conditions (77F) against over 7,000 participant runners and walkers.
I tore out in 7:27 and followed it with a 7:42 and 7:41 plus the change. The first mile was a second best race mile on my ledger.

So much for the numbers. I had about nine beer coupons from my teammates who left, to make the evening complete down there on the field of the Citrus Bowl afterwards. I only used two of them. Honest.

Weird weather

Spring is always weird with the weather. Like those of you in New England don't know that right now. When I went to run this morning at 0700 it was hot and humid with a good breeze. I ran with Cherline, Chris, Dave and Bob for 10 miles and it was nasty. We were drenched when finished and remembering how it is here in June, July, August and September - HOTTER than blazes.

We got around the town in 1:37 which was eight minutes slower than last week. At the end of our run we heard from the twin running the Paris Marathon this morning. She said it was 86F at the start and hilly! We encouraged her to go have a good time. She stressed over lost luggage until last night. I cannot imagine a better place to have to go shopping for clothes when the airline loses your luggage, can you? Paris?!

Conservation. My car has a miles per gallon indicator. When I have it on I find I am much more conservative in the way I drive because I make it a mission to optimize my MPG. I roll towards yellow and red lights. I use cruise control all the time, even in city driving. I am amazed what a difference it makes to be conscious of such things.I guess we can apply that to a lot of things in our lives.

I made an executive decision about tomorrow. I am staying home. If the US GOV can give us an extra day (Tuesday) to submit our tax returns, damn it, I am taking full advantage. I owe again, but less than last year.

An unusual 13th on Friday

I ran like a rocket this morning. The eye is whitening back up so I went to the track. I had juice to spare.

400m 1:38.53 3rd best time ever
400m 1:38.23 2nd best time ever
400m 1:38:28 new3rd best time ever
800m 3:40 and 3:44
400m 1:42 and 1:40
200m 0:45.14 Personal Record best time ever
200m 0:46.97

Then I went to work and had to do the most uncomfortable personnel task there is. I am rebuilding my team and need some new hands. The process begins.

I think the work had me stressing earlier in the week and just caused me to pop an eyeball.

Good luck to any readers going to Boston. Pack your snow shovel. My condolences.

Bloody hell

I woke up this morning after another restless night. I looked in the mirror and found I had a busted blood vessel in my left eye. I cancelled the run just in case. Mrs. T swears she had nothing to do with it.

Runner Susan said she wanted to see it so here it is.

I am chanelling the Easter bunny

My neighbor Dennis was out on his front porch this morning playing with his grand kids. As I walked my dogs around the corner of his property I could see a hundred bright colored eggs "hiding" in the grass, bushes, next to rocks, on street signs, on window sills ... everywhere. You could tell there was going to be some serious celebration in a non-religious way around that house because Dennis was sitting there in a full body bunny suit laughing with the kids. I wish I had a camera.

In my own way I was hopping like a bunny this morning. I went downtown for the Sunday run and it was p-e-r-f-e-c-t: 50 degrees and partly cloudy. It was a morning that I thought may result in a light turnout because of Easter but there were no less than 16 of us to go at 0700. We had risen. We were going to run.

A recent occurrence has been out-of-town visitors going to the orlandorunnersclub.org Web site and learning of our Sunday runs. Veteran Jack (72 years old) channels them to Park Avenue to join us. Today we had a Birmingham, England constable who has run the London Marathon many times. Also today, among the locals, were two tapering for Boston next week and one opting to run the Paris Marathon next Sunday. She said she ran another race in France once, at Burgundy, where she struggled to adopt the local custom of drinking wine at the fluid stops.

The group took off filling the avenue from curb to curb. A few "car back" shouts would cause for a merge to one side that had me thinking about a bicycle race. I ran with Mary for awhile to hear how she qualified for Boston (ran Chicago to pace a friend for 13 miles; the friend dropped out and she just kept going and just qualified in 3:55).

After the water/Gatorade stop (4 miles) we all took off again and I fell in with identical twin girls, the copper from England and Sal, a deputy sheriff from around here. Twin Theresa is the one running Paris. Our group was moving pretty fast. I knew the twins to be good runners and I was having no trouble keeping up. My usual gang was somewhere behind us and only caught up when we were leaving the 7th mile fluids stop.

The last three miles, with a few hills, had me feeling so good. I was wishing to myself that these were the conditions in Atlanta two weeks ago. We finished the 10 miles and I was on a great runners' high. I had a hop in my step all the way home.

It turned out I covered the ten in 1:28 which was a 8:53/mile pace. Folks, I haven't run anything longer than five miles in an under 9 minute pace since the New Haven 20K race last Labor Day with Michelle, Jon, April Anne, Danny, Dianna and a few others. I was definitely in a groove today. What a feeling. I hope you have it today or sometime soon.

One more chiller

With apologies to all of you north of me longing for steady spring weather, I am looking forward to tomorrow's Sunday run in the cool temps. This will probably be the last cold snap down here, with ideal conditions for running - somewhere in the low 50s. From here on until Christmas it will be somewhere between par-boil and deep fry, with a little hurricane whipped wind to boot.

Thursday I undertook a 5-mile recovery run, still trying to restrain myself from reloading with a heavy training regimen and fast times. I started slowly and worked up to a comfortable pace. After awhile I thought I might be cruising at marathon pace. Then it felt faster and I could sense my stride and tempo rising. I had plenty of endurance for the distance and I finished in just over 44:00. That turned out to be a top 10 time and I declared myself fit and ready to go longer Easter morning, start speedwork again on Tuesday and concentrate on that speed in advance of the 5K on the 19th.

Someone wanted to know why the upcoming race starts at 6:45 p.m. on a Thursday? (1) It's a corporate run and (2) we do not want to miss too much of happy hour.

I guess I am still in recovery ...

... but it does not feel like it. I am beginning to think I did not put out hard enough in the Georgia Marathon. Yeah, I PRed against grueling conditions but I was hardly sore, played tourist afterwards, came home and went for three runs. So far and it's all been so .... normal. I expected a recovery of consequence for which there has been none.

I behaved myself and ran just three miles last Friday; then six on Sunday and four-plus today with a 1:45 400m lap thrown in on the track just for fun. I want more. I'll go ten this weekend.

Next race is the 19th at 6:45 p.m. A 5K corporate run. I invited a young lady at the district office to be the team captain and she has recruited enough or more runners plus over $500 for the event charity. I am impressed with her motivation. The bad news is that I think I am the designated fasty on the team. We do not expect to win any awards on my credentials but we're out there for fun and fellowship, right? Sure. This time anyway.

Georgia still on my mind

Monday, after the race we went to a Cajun restaurant where we inhaled some great breakfast. I had eggs benedict and three incredible beniets.

Then we drove down to CNN to take the tour which involved going down eight flights of stairs. Somebody else from the race was there too and she had issues with the stairs. I did not, surprisingly. The news production there is top notch and big time.

The biggest surprise was seeing Betsy in the lobby. Betsy is the HUMVEE that Charles Rodgers rode across the desert during the Iraq invasion in 2003 with the 3/7th Cavalry. Betsy was right there in the lobby with a video screen replaying reports by Rodgers sent back to the states in March and April of that year. When his voice came on the TV at any time of the day or night back then (we were always tuned to CNN) we were bolt upright and paying attention. Rodgers was with Apache troop of the 3/7 CAV and our son was in Crazy Horse troop, no less than a mile or two away. He kept us informed on the welfare of US forces and especially our #1 boy.

After CNN we drove to Kennesaw Mountain to take in the Civil War museum and sights. I tried to talk Mrs. T into hiking the 1-mile trail to the summit , 700 feet above the visitors center but she was not so inclined. Crazy me - I was willing though really not so able.

We toured the battlefield area and came to understand how Kennesaw Mtn. was one of the last successes for the South and probably the last stupid move by Gen. Sherman for the North. Everything got easy after Kennesaw as Atlanta fell soon thereafter.

Tuesday we drove home to Florida. It was a quiet drive. For all that I put up with in the race and afterwards, I was feeling fresh as a daisy by Wednesday morning with no soreness at all. I need to rememer how I did that next time around.

P.S. If you didn't see the pics of the Tibetan monks making their sand art, go back a few posts and see what I put up. Meditate on that, runnng people.