The Training Goes On.

So, it's been a while since I last reported in about the Chuck Stratton sighting. Since then I've come back to Boston and mushed on with training. I have to say though that until last night I felt like I was sort of going through the motions. Not surprisingly the long the day after I got back wasn't great, I was just out of energy completely. The next day was a fun 5K with my friends called the Ras na hEireann that is in Davis Square which was a lot of fun, as was the after party, especially since it was nice enough to sit in the sun all day!

After that though it was back to the grind of work and training and it was just hard to get into it all. I did my usual runs that week just fine, but wasn't feeling the old excitement and energy that I had been. That Saturday was a particularly tough day because I was I was planning to do 16 only to find that FitCorp was only set up for 12 miles, and only had one water stop! The water stop was at mile 3, so that meant that I had over 10 miles without water when there normally would be about 3 in that time. That's a hard way to go when you're not prepared. Fortunately I'm on a team with some damn good teammates. Out in Brookline I fell in with some of the other Liver runners who were going to 16 as well including this guy Adam that I've been getting to know over the past few weeks.  He was hitting a pace that was good for me and when it came time to commit to the 16 miles he offered me water from his fuel belt.  I can't tell you how much that helped me, nor how much I appreciate him for giving me water.  He was also very encouraging and walked with me a few times when I felt that I couldn't run.  Great help to me.  I made it to the end of this one tired, but surprisingly I wasn't sore or physically drained, the problems I was having were in my mind.  I hadn't regained the belief that I could finish the run; I had lost some faith in myself and I honestly think it's because of not getting enough rest.  I wasn't getting the "reset" that a good nights sleep gives you. I ended that 16 miles slow, but still happy because I had diagnosed my problem and all I had to do to fix it was stay in bed.  Nice.

I did that pretty well Saturday night and into Sunday morning (not quite into the afternoon).  Monday's run was pretty cold and upwind which is no fun.  I woke up yesterday feeling like my legs were still tired from Monday and Saturdays running and so was really worried about the hill workout at FitCorp that night.  I started late but settled right in to the rhythm of uphill to downhill and before too long was getting the feel for efficiently burning energy on the way up and recharging energy on the way down again.  When I got done I felt like it had been over too fast!  I felt like I hadn't done enough of a workout even though I had.  This is a really weird feeling that I didn't try ruin by running extra, that's a great way to ruin your training schedule.  

Now it's Wednesday morning and an off day.  I have 6 miles tomorrow before the big 21 Miler on the course on Saturday.  After this week I think I might actually be ready for that.

In related news, I got fitted for new shoes at my local Marathon Sports, and they switched me out of the Saucony's that I had been wearing for years and into the Asics Gel Fortitude 3. So far, so good!

In other news, my Mother should be getting out of the hospital today!  

Motivation.

It's really strange to be home while one of your parents is in the hospital; it means the time in their house has an emptiness to it.  We spend the day at the hospital and then Dad and I go home and he checks the messages on their answering machine and we go through the calls, most of which are for Mom, though not all of them know that she's in the hospital.  One of the calls this week was from the wife of the former pastor of the church we went to in Youngstown checking in on Mom and reporting that her husband had just had a heart attack.  This was hard to hear with all this other stuff going on; the good Reverend was quite a nice man and had been like a mentor figure to my father. 

I've been awful torn about going out and running, it seems like there's always something I should be at the hospital for, and it's hard to find the motivation to pick a new running course in a town that I'm unfamiliar with as far as running goes.  I have run though and the course was kind of a natural for me because all I did was pick a landmark that was familiar to me and then head for it.  I picked the High Falls and it works out that that an out and back is about 8 miles, and that's just what I need  now.  You can see my course by clicking here, though my newly calibrated watch tells me it's longer than what the Google thinks it is.  The section along the river is pretty good, but the genius urban planners here didn't make it a priority to preserve that trail all the way along the river, so I did have to run through the city for a bit of it, and downtown Rochester isn't as friendly or nice as Comm Ave or Beacon Hill.  Sunday's run went just sort of OK, but I made it through fine.  I planned to run the same route in the morning yesterday, but various things pushed that to the afternoon.  

Around 1:30 or so yesterday Mom complained about being too hot, so I stepped to the back for the room to see about setting up a fan for her.  I looked up from wrestling with that to see a Man standing at the door to her room.  He was probably in his 80s, dressed sharply in a blue blazer, shirt, tie and khakis, and had an obvious energy to him that made him seem much younger.  He was clearly waiting to be invited in which I did, and in three short motions had crossed the room to where my mother sat, dropped to one knee and was holding her hand before I knew it.  I was surprised by this partly because of his speed, but also because I had no idea who he was!  He knew Mom though and mentioned Becky, Dad and I as though he knew us.  I introduced myself and we shook hands, but he didn't give his name, so I asked him who he was as politely as I could.  He looked me straight in the eye and responded:

"I'm Chuck Stratton," and coolly turned back to my mother.

"The Reverend Stratton?"  I asked in disbelief.

He turned back to me, "Yes the Reverend Stratton, just let the ramifications of that sink in." 

I did.  

This was our pastor from Youngstown who I hadn't seen in 15 years or so, and who I had assumed was lying half-dead in a bed somewhere else in this hospital.  My father and I both tried looking him up but couldn't get the lady at the front desk to tell us he what room he was in, damnable privacy laws.  

"Wait, I thought you had just had a heart attack?"  I said to him.  He glanced away as though he was deflecting bullets with nigh-invulnerable skin and said:

"I did have one.  About three weeks ago.  I'm fine now."  He sounded as though he were the Black Night saying "It's merely a flesh wound" when his arm had just come off.  

After that he said a few more things to Mom, we introduced him to the Deacon of my parents new(er) church who was in the room and he was gone just as quickly as he had shown up.  Leaving me floored in his wake.  How did this man who had had a heart attack seem younger than the man I had looked up to all those years ago?  

When I told my Dad about it he likened the experience to the Disciples seeing Jesus after the resurrection.  I don't know about that, but I could see that this man was unstoppable, and it filled in me a desire to be the same.  After my Dad showed up I went for my run, adding a half mile to it despite winds here being in the 35mph range.  

I don't know how being here for my Mom will affect my training, but I am going to try to be unstoppable.

Urban Run

It's Thursday so that means another run from Crossroad's.

We had a nice break from the cold over the weekend, and Tuesday it warmed up for the snow (if you consider 30F warm), but overnight it dropped like a bad habit and at the start of the tonight's run it was near to 19F.  This caused my usual running partners to sally out and stay home.  Most of the group had already left to do the Woodland Hills run by the time I got there, so I couldn't do that (not that I would have anyway, that's way too much work for a Thursday), so I was on my own for a run.  

The goal was to do about 5 miles, which I could normally do on the river, but the wind along the river was strong and I wasn't sure that the paths wouldn't be too icy.  I decided to try out a course that I had once planned for an earlier Crossroad's run that was about what I was looking for. 

I cut over from the bar to Commonwealth Avenue, which in the Back Bay is actually more like a boulevard in the French sense of it.  There's expensive sandstone row houses down either side, and 2 pairs of traffic lanes divided by a wide, tree-lined walkway that is punctuated every so often by a statue or monument of some kind.  In the winter they put white christmas lights on the trunks of the trees so this area is illuminated in a warm light.  I headed east between the trees and into the Public Garden.  Crossing over what is apparently the worlds smallest suspension bridge (according to the Wikipedia which is never wrong) I noticed a guy clearing snow off the little ice-covered lake that the Swan Boats float on in the summertime.  I imagine he wanted to teach his kids how to play hockey here tomorrow or something - that's the Runner Mind talking again.  At Charles Street I looped around Beacon Hill and came up past the classically beautiful City Hall but neglected to look for the wind turbine on the roof that the Mayor hasn't been good at telling anyone about.  From here it was a quick run over the hill to Park Street T Station and after that I made a right onto Boylston Street.  I then cut across the West side of Boston Common and made a left to reenter the Garden from where I had left it. 

I could tell at this point that I wouldn't make the 5 miles I was looking for if I went straight back to Crossroads, so I decided to act on a thought I had had on the way in.  In order to make up the extra mileage I would run a loop around every statue along Comm Ave.  I know it doesn't seem like it would add much distance, but sometimes when you're running you just do something for the rigor of it, and ignore the fact that people might think you look crazy for doing it.  

First up was a giant statue of George Washington on his horse, and was a big loop because it's still in the Garden and has quite a formal path around it that looped me right out towards Arlington Street where I hit a light for the first time in this 3-mile journey.  It wasn't a long delay and from here it was a straight shot to all those statues and the loops they wanted me to do around them.  On I went and loop I did around:

Alexander Hamilton, slain by Aaron Burr

John Glover, Revolutionary War Hero

Patrick Andrew Collins, former Mayor

The Vendome Fire Memorial, which honors the deaths of 9 firefighters in the line of duty

William Loyd Garrison, abolitionist

Samuel Eliot Morrison, naval historian and sailor 

- after Sam I had a good long straightaway and decided to see if I could sprint it, which I did -

The Boston Women's Memorial

Domingo Sarmiento, one-time President of Argentina

and finally;

Leif Ericson, famed Icelander who may have once sailed into Boston Harbor, depending on your source....

After that I still wasn't quite up to 5 miles yet so I went past Mass. Ave to the Charlesgate overpasses and made the two rights that got me back to Beacon Street and the bar.  I felt strong in the end and sprinted again.  

It was a good run and I was glad to engage the city's beauty and history a bit more than I normally do.  Those statues that I passed range in age by over 100 years and you can tell by looking at them; not because some look old or new, but because of the way you're meant to interact with them.  The older ones are always a bronze man on a huge stone block that you're meant to walk around and observe from afar like a painting in a museum.  The newer ones have smaller parts that you're meant to walk right up to and engage in order to learn their meaning.  the Vendome Memorial has a timeline of the fire and features the names of the men who died on that corner which offers a much different experience than the Bunker Hill Monument in nearby Charlestown (hint, it's a giant stone obelisk).

The thing I'm noticing more and more lately is that when I do a shorter run (under 7 miles) I don't feel very tired when I'm done.  And today I felt that I could up my speed as I was going without getting too winded.  Something tells me that it's time for me to push harder and run faster more regularly.  Uh-oh.

More Snow Running

It's been a few interesting days of  running.  Saturday there was a break in the cold/snowy/icy weather that has held Boston in a death grip, which made for nice conditions for the run up Heartbreak.  In fact, I haven't sweat so much since I started this training as I did that day.  We hit Comm Ave.  and it was all relentless sun and mid-30s.  I even had to take off a layer, which is also unprecedented.  I felt great and even had some extra energy for the last 3 miles which is a rarity for me, especially considering that I was running by myself pretty much the whole way.  My regular running buddies were doing a different course and I didn't fall in with any random people along the way.  It worked out fine though and I had a great run that was pretty close to the 10 minute mile pace that I want to hit.

Monday was warm again, but it had iced over during the night so there were some definite icy patches along the way.  

Tonight was really great though.  Once again there was all kinds of talk about snow hitting us over night, and once again it actually hit later on in the morning.  We had a steady falling of snow all day, but not so much that the plows couldn't handle it so the Hill Repeat workout went on as planned.  It was coming down for the whole run and pretty soon after the plows went by there was a nice layer of snow, and so I tried the YakTrax again (pictured above left).  These things are really great, and I went from being really worried about slipping and sliding in the damp snow to feeling perfectly stable in no time.  We did 7 hill repeats and I'm just really happy that they've gotten easier.  Hills are a big fear of mine for this race, especially since they kicked my @$$ at the BAA Half-Marathon in the fall.  I gather that we'll be doing 7 for a while, and then 8, 9, and eventually topping out at about 10 a night.  Something tells me that will be a bit monotonous.....

In addition to just generally having a good run, it was great to be out in the city during the snow.  Everything was just beautiful and quiet and the light was awesome.  I would have missed it all had I just gone home; hmmm, I guess I need to add that to list of reasons to run a marathon, getting to run hill repeats in the snow.  

Cold Midweek

So it has been very cold in Boston this week.  As I write this weather.com has a temp of -3º for Cambridge, which is lower that when I got home from my run last night by about 12º.  Something about cold runs must tire you out more because it was barely a 5-mile run and I still passed out on the couch until 3am.  Man that sleep felt good though!

Tuesday night was the first of the hill repeat training, which luckily saw a break in temps...it was up 33º!  Hill repeats are basically just what they sound like, a loop that takes us from FitCorp, down around the Boston Common and Public Garden, past the original Cheers, to the foot of Beacon Hill.  Then we run up and down Beacon Hill a bunch of times.  This week it was 5, next it will 6, and ascending for the rest of training.  Fun times.  There's a big crowd and since it's a repeat you never feel all that along which is nice.  It seemed very daunting the first time, but after the 5th repeat I felt surprisingly good.  I'm hopeful that this help me on the Woodland Run up Heartbreak tomorrow morning, which should see 7º temperatures. (cue ominous music...)

And off to ride my bike to work!

Settling into the week.

So it's Wednesday and I've gotten two of this weeks three runs in before the 12-miler on Saturday, and boy have they been special ones.  As some of you might know we've had some winter weather here in the Hub.  When Bec knocked on the front window Monday at 6:30 in the AM there was a nice layer of ice over every horizontal surface; I don't quite know how she made it down the hill from her house, but the important thing is that she did and so there was no turning back.  We headed out on our usual course the to river, hoping with every treacherous step that we'd hit a patch of sidewalk that where someone had had the foresight to lay out some salt.  We weren't that lucky, even Harvard hadn't thought about that.  We did make it to the river and decided not to attempt crossing the bridge ("Bridges Freeze Before Road", anyone seen that sign?) so we headed along the river on the Cambridge side.  There was a lot of running on the grass next to the sidewalk and stopping to make very deliberate steps, but in the end we made it home the better for having been out in the ice.  

Today we had some warning that conditions would be less than ideal, in fact schools started closing yesterday afternoon even though the snow wasn't meant to start until midnight.  Dawn brought with it about an inch or two of wet snow on the ground, Bec was a little worried about sleet but went out on the porch and decided that it was a great day for a run and texted her to get moving.  It was right around 32 degrees which is a great running temperature, and it was also the perfect opportunity to try out our YakTrax  which are basically like chains for your shoes.  It wasn't sleeting when we left but by the time we hit the river it was coming down pretty well; not ideal for wearing glasses.  We looped around the river and when we hit the Eliot Bridge and the turn towards home I felt good enough to keep going another bridge - an uncommon experience even in the summer - and so we went on to the Weeks footbridge.  Today ended up being a 4.4 mile run with a brisk sidewalk shoveling afterwards.  Nice.

I know they say that you shouldn't run in conditions like this, and I fully admit to the danger, but there's something really fun about it too.  We ran the same courses that we've been running all year (2008 that is) but they were more interesting and fun than normal.  I've always loved being out in the snow and running is just another fun way to experience it.  Also though, I'm in training for a marathon in April, the only way that I can have fairweather training is if I move to someplace warmer, and as appealing as that might be some days, it's not in the cards.  This means that I can't be too choosy with the weather that I run in.  Plus I don't have treadmill or gym membership so I don't have that to fall back on it.  I've made a commitment to the marathon and that means some days I've got to run in sleet, or "sneet" as I've heard the mix called, then so be it.