Track Work

I normally find track work relaxing in a weird sort of way. It's hard work, but there's something peaceful about getting out onto a soft surface of uniform distance & cutting loose.

Not today.

It was forty degrees by the time I got to the track at about 1:15 this afternoon. A hard rain had apparently fallen (I was out of town yesterday and this morning), and the inside lanes of the track were covered with little shallow puddles. A light mist still fell, but as I began the workout, I thought that I would get through it without too much weather-based discomfort.

I was wrong.

The workout was a mile breakdown, which I've read is a good one to do a week or so before a 5k. I started with a mile warmup (if you can call it that), during which I soon began splashing the extremely cold water onto my shoes, socks, and legs. It's OK, I thought; I can handle this for an hour or so. Then as the fourth lap ended, I hit the lap button and shifted gears. The first rep, a 1600, was over in 7:18. I kicked water further up my legs, and my shoes and socks were officially soaked. Then after a two-lap recovery jog, I did a 1200 -- intended to be at the same pace as the 1600 but actually a bit too fast at 5:24. Next was a one-lap recovery -- during which the rain restarted in earnest --  followed by an 800 at 3:36 (again, too fast), another recovery lap, then opening up a little for the final 400 at 1:38.

Meanwhile, it was still raining, so the planned mile cooldown and thorough stretching became a 600-meter cooldown and a quickie stretch at the gate leading to the parking lot. By that time I was soaked to the skin and quite cold. Then a dry shirt, heat on high in the truck, a short drive back to my house while peering though what little of my windshield was left unfogged by the hot air hitting my wet clothes, and a hot bath.

There are a lot of things that one can say about a workout like this, and some of them do not contain profanity. My legs were a bit tired afterward, but not as tired as they would have been after more extensive speedwork, as the 2.5 total miles of fast running required for this workout does not build up that much lactic acid in one's legs. I will only run easy this week, and barring illness (always a possibility when one runs in 40-degree rain), I should be fresh for the Downtown 5K this Saturday.

Geting Faster

This week was a good one for workouts -- seasonably cool at first and moderating toward the end of the week with no rain; a good week to work toward getting a little faster before the winter and spring races, which for me start with a 5k in downtown Greenville the last weekend of this month. The race is a large one, with anywhere between 700 and 1000 runners and walkers, so placing is not a possibility for me; still, it holds some significance for me because it is the first road race I ever ran in, in January 2004. I had been running less than two months then, and still thought that 5k was a long way to run at any pace faster than a jog. My goal was to finish in under 30 minutes, and I made it, at 27:37, in 30 degree weather, wearing full sweats and cross-trainers. It's easy to laugh now looking back on it, but it was a necessary step on the path to becoming a runner. The next year I came back as a runner, in shorts and Mizuno Riders, and clock what for me was then a 5k PR, 23:10. I didn't beat that last year because of a hectic schedule and a loose shoelace, so
I'm going to give it a shot again this year. It doesn't sound that tough, around 7:25 splits, but it's hard to get out of that mash of people at the start, and in order to get downtown to finish, one has to get up a huge hill. But it's doable, especially if I put in the work ahead of time. One thing I've discovered during the past 3+ years is that speed can be built up fairly quickly and in a relatively short amount of time, and usually atrophies just as quickly when one neglects it.

Anyway, I had three good workout this week geared toward building up speed, and it occurs to me that there a a lot of beginning and intermediate runners out there, and it is possible that one or two of them might actually stumble upon this site. If so, a brief description of the workouts I did this week -- essentially a beginning, intermediate, and a somewhat advanced workout -- might be helpful.

If you're a beginning runner who maybe has run a 5k or two, and you want to shave some time off your finish, a tempo workout is a good one to add to your weekly routine. A tempo run simply requires running at a comfortably hard pace for a set period of time to increase your lactate threshold, which is a measure of how fast your leg muscles get rid of lactic acid (the faster, the better). If you've run a 5k or other race before, simply calculate your pace per mile in your last 5k and plan on running your tempo workout about 30 seconds per mile slower (if you haven't run a 5k before, or haven't run one recently, do a time trial by running 3 miles at a hard pace and timing yourself, dividing your total time by 3). I usually begin with a slow warmup of 1.5 miles or so at an easy pace, then begin timing myself and turn my speed up to tempo pace. A beginner should probably try to hold this pace for about 10-12 minutes on the first workout, and then increase the length of the run by 1-2 minutes each week; more experienced runners can run longer at first, around 15-20 minutes. End the workout by cooling down for a mile or so at an easy pace. It'll teach your legs to hold a fast pace longer and function better when they're tired. My Tuesday tempo workout consisted of a 12-minute warmup followed by 22 minutes at tempo (run at a 7:40 pace, which admitedly was a little too fast) and a mile of cool-down.

The second hard workout I did this week was one that I had never done before. My wife, who coaches a middle-school running club, told me about a drill that she had read about in Runner's World which was supposed to increase stride frequency. Developed by running coach Greg McMillan, it consists of ten short, fast strides at 95% effort with 2 minutes of easy running in between. It sounds easy, but while it was not the hardest speed workout I have ever done, I was kind of happy when it was over. The strides whould be close to all-out, and you should keep moving between reps. The first time she did this workout with her students, they (not to mention the other coaches and volunteers) were wiped out, and talked about it at school the next day until it became the stuff of legend. Skeptical, I joined them for their second workout, which involved 20-second speed reps instead of the 15-second ones they had done the previous week. I found it tough on the lungs, but not as much so on the legs, which were not as tired as they normally would have been after a speed session. This would be a good alternative to standard speedwork for an intermediate runner -- especially if time is at a premium -- or an introduction to speedwork for a beginning runner.

My third hard workout of the week, done this morning, was more advanced, consisting of ten 800-meter reps on the track with 400-meter jogs in between. Normally I would do this workout in the manner suggested by longtime Runner's World conributor Bart Yasso, which involves doing the reps at around 10k pace. But since I'm training primarily for a 5k at present, I ran them a little faster, averaging around 3:37 per rep, or 10-15 seconds per mile faster than 5k pace. I try to do one or two sets of Yasso 800s a month no matter what I am training for, as they are good training for any race. I am convinced that they played a major role in helping me run my first sub-four-hour marathon this fall.

So what's next? The 5k is in 2 weeks, so unless I catch my wife's cold this week, I'm going to do another tempo either Tuesday or Wednesday, and on Friday I will tackle one of my customized workouts, ten .1-mile uphill reps at 95% up the street that comes out in front of my house. Sunday I will probably go to the track and do three 1600-meter reps with 800-meter recovery intervals. Then the week leading up to the race will be all easy running.

WTF?

I got this story in a newsletter today about an eminent historian who was busted for jaywalking at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Atlanta. Apparently the Atlanta Police had nothing better to do than to crack down upon jaywalkers near the convention site, conducting a vigorous multi-day campaign during which they verbally harangued numerous people and checked a few people's IDs, but apparently did not treat anyone with the roughness with which they treated this guy, who in defense of the eight officers surrounding him in the photo, DID look furrign. They then locked him in a cell for 8 hours, after which he was forced to post $1000 bond and pressured to take a plea bargain (he didn't) before embarrassment finally got the best of someone and he was released. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just another beautiful day in the "homeland." Don't you feel more secure now?

A Quick Note on the New Congress

I actually have little to say about this historic day, except to pass along a little something I ran across today while surfing the Web. Problem is, I was only one of millions of people to see this today, and it is indicative of the way the press -- even the Internet press -- has been trying to downplay the transition of Congress to the Democrats.

This was the list of headlines on Yahoo's home page 5 minutes ago:

• Bush talks about Iraq, Saddam execution
• Democrats take control of Congress
• Nuclear agency head dismissed for lapses
• Priests try to help find secret graves of IRA victims
• France to create 'legal right' to housing
• Calf with two faces born at Virginia farm
• Pennington named AP Comeback Player of Year

Wow. A wholesale transfer of power that gives America its first ever female Speaker of the House rates right between a lame duck president weighing in on a snuff video and a bureaucrat getting shit-canned, and four clicks above a two-faced calf.

Thanks for fulfilling your sacred duty to inform the public, assholes.

First Lessons of the New Year

I learned a couple of things this morning:

1) Although a GPS device is a wonderful training tool, a good old-fashioned stopwatch is still more practical for track interval workouts;

2 (and more importantly)) There is a big difference between taking 200-meter rests and 400-meter rests between 400s. After 8 repeats with 200-meter rest intervals, I was quite a bit more winded than I usually am after a similar workout with 400-meter rests, and my legs were sufficiently lactic that doing a few short strides during my cool-down was an effort.

I know what that means: 200-meter recovery intervals between 400-mter repeats from now on. I'll endure the added discomfort if it will make me faster.

Neither New Beginning nor Old End

I don't have any earth-shattering year's end entry to this blog, just some rambling thoughts on how the last year has gone and what's in store for the next.

2006 was a pretty good year for me as a runner. It started rather inauspiciously, with a 23:55 5k hampered by an untied shoelace but that would not have matched the previous year's time even if I had not wasted 30 seconds fumbling to tie a double bow with cold gloved fingers. Indeed, this was not my year for 5ks. I did record a 22:05 for a 5k on a course that was, um, uncertified, but other than that, the fastest one I turned was the 23:28 I did for a time trial in a pre-Thanksgiving turkey trot race. Still, the big picture for 2006 is all positive: out of 18 races I ran this year, I placed in the top 5 in my age group 5 times, finished in the top 3 four times, and won my age group 3 times. I ran my first sub-four-hour marathon this year in a race infamous for its relentless hills, and to cap it all off, won my track club's racing points series for my age group. I can't complain, and I won't.

Still, I want to get better, faster, fitter, and to have more fun. That's not a New Year's resolution, as I have but one standing New Year's resolution, which is not to make any fucking New Year's resolutions. Rather, I am motivated to work toward substantial improvement by several factors, including increased confidence (if I can train to finish the Spinx marathon in under 4 hrs., I can train to PR in some shorter races), better gear (the Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS device I got for Christmas), impending age (I estimate that I have until age 45 to reach maximum speed, though perhaps much later for endurance), and desire to get fitter (a resting pulse around 50, maybe?). That would be just as true if this were August 31 as it is tonight.

So tomorrow, no matter how I feel, I will be doing one of two things: 10x400 at the track if it's not too wet, or 25 min. tempo in the neighborhood if the track has too many puddles. Some way to spend a New Year's Day, I know; but I also know that I won't be the only one doing it. There are a hell of a lot of us out there, from all walks of life and with lots of different motivations. Some of us will have fancy GPs devices, some will have watches, and some will be equipped only with a pair of sturdy shoes and their thoughts. And tomorrow we'll be out there, in the air of the new year -- much like the old, but with a host of new possibilities as well as lots of scratched-out dates on registration forms and checks.

James Brown (1933-2006)
I couldn't let this one go by without posting it.  James Brown was an eccentric, erratic, and occasionally even a dangerous man, but was also a unique artist who was often copied, but never equaled.

A New Beginning

After much thought and no action, I have finally realized that the only way to revamp this blog is to start writing -- oh yes, and to change the name. Baseball blogs are a dime a dozen, as are blogs specifically on the Braves; and sometimes I have nothing of substance to say about baseball, anyway. In fact, from the looks of this blog, I don't have anything substantial to say about it for weeks at a time, and this is especially true in the fall and winter months. 

As a result, the subject matter of this blog is about to broaden, still to include baseball on occasion but also to deal with other subjects such as politics and running. Indeed, it was my involvement in the sport of running that inspired the blog's new name, Smell the Clock. Perhaps I should explain:

There is a half-marathon that I run every year in Greer, SC. The course is surprisingly non-hilly for the Greenville area, but one of the obstacles one encounters along the course is a fast-food restaurant called The Clock, located on the side of the street at about the twelve-mile mark, that emanates a strong smell of frying chicken that under any other circumstances I would find quite appetizing but have a hard time stomaching after twelve miles of half-marathon-pace running. I had mentioned the smell to my wife after first running the race, and after I finished it the second time she asked me: "Did you smell the clock this time?" The more I thought about it, the more I find it an apt metaphor for running as well as for other aspects of life. Now sometimes when I'm nearing the end of a race, I think to myself: "you can smell the clock now. You are almost there."

I decided to make this phrase the new name for this blog yesterday morning, while running the brutal Paris Mountain 20k for the third time. I was considerably warmer yesterday than it usually is on the day of this race -- too warm, in fact, to run 2.5 miles  straight up a mountain and 4 back down, only to have to deal with several more miles of rolling hills before dragging wobbly legs and a sour stomach across the finish line. As I approached the final 2 miles, well off my PR pace, I caught the lipidinous aroma of Pete's, a diner similar to The Clock, and thought again about my Greer half-marathon experience. I knew that a name would come to me eventually, and that it would probably come at a time when I least expected it. And there it was. And here it is.

In Memoriam

I had indicated earlier that I was going to shift the primary focus of this blog away from baseball; but I could not pass up the opportunity to celebrate the lives of two baseball's finest, who recently left us. I regret that I have been saddled with work obligations and thus was unable to comment upon the passing of Buck O'Neill in a timely manner, as he was undoubtedly a prominent figure in Negro League baseball and a pivotal one in the integration of Major League Baseball. In addition, he was reportedly one of the classiest men who ever played the game, a man who harbored no bitterness even though he had every right to do so, and a favorite interview subject of sportswriters. He will be sorely missed, but he had a long and fruitful life. Well done, sir.

And just today, I heard of the untimely passing of Joe Niekro, a man who, while not as great a player or prominent a figure as Buck O'Neill (not to mention his brother Phil), was a colorful character with a long and distinguished career. One of my favorite Joe Niekro stories involves a Ball-doctoring incident that occurred during his final season with the Astros (yeah, I know cheating normally isn't funny, but this was; and besides, ball-doctoring is far from the worst transgression that baseball players regularly commit: steroids, anyone?). Anyway, I don't recall who the Astros were playing, or who the umpires were, but the opposing manager accused Niekro of having an emery board in his possession, which he was allegedly using to scuff baseballs. When the entire umpiring crew went to the mound to confront him, Niekro decided to try an old schoolboy trick on them. Palming the emery board in his right hand, in one deft motion he dropped it to the ground at hip level while raising his hands in the air, palms outward, to show that he had nothing in them. The funny thing is, in a stadium full of people and with four umpires looking directly at him, it almost worked. Three of the four umpires looked up at his hands; but a fourth looked down, and seeing the emery board lying on the mound at Niekro's feet, picked it up and summarily gave Joe the heave-ho. It still ranks as one of the funniest damn things that I have ever seen in my thirty-plus years of following Major League Baseball.

Totally Off Base

First, let's get the baseball out of the way. The Braves split two doubleheaders with the Phillies this weekend, which wasn't enough. the second game Saturday and the first game yesterday were quite ugly. Now they have to play three games against the Mets, which will likely be even uglier. The season is, for all intents and purposes, over.

Now to something that, while no more pleasant or relevant, is at least original.

The first time I saw a promo for the movie Snakes on a Plane, I thought: "Great. The world just got a little stupider." Yet I had no idea just how much stupider: for not only was such a moronic title taken in stride, it was praised for its straightforwardness and its "sledgehammer effect."

So this is the wave of the future now: banal movie titles written in the simplest English possible: I should have seen it coming. After all, it is the reign of King George II, and nuance is for sissies.

So what can we look forward to in this brave new post- intellectual world? Here are some movie titles that we may well be seeing in the not-so-distant future:

      1. People Blowing Shit Up

      2. Lots of Car Chases and Stuff

      3. Talking Babies are Funny

      4. Excuse for Naomi Watts to Wear Something Skimpy

       5. Tired, Recycled Crap, Part II

       6. Some Chinese Guys Fighting

       7. Ron Howard Wants More Money

       8. Black Cop White Cop

       9. Trying to Make Women Cry

     10. Monsters! Aieeee!