Running Shirts Disposal

          Well I finally did it. After putting it off for several weeks, I found the time to check the accumulated junk in my garage storage cabinets, and sort out what I can live with or without. Most of the things I found I could live without, otherwise I wouldn't have kept them in the garage in the first place.
          These were the things that I found: a pair of speaker stands which I used years ago before my living room got filled up with exercise equipment and I had a 500 watt amplifier; a rarely used pair of inline skates because I had poor balance and did more falling than skating; lots of towels and blankets left behind by a female friend 2 decades ago; bedsheets that I thought I had thrown away; and finally, about 80 to 100 cotton and or polyester race t-shirts from the 80's and early 90's, back when I was participating in races almost every weekend.
          First I found a bag of shirts which I took a picture of on the hood of my car. As I digged deeper into the cabinet, I found two more bags filled with shirts. Years ago, I thought about having those shirts made into a quilt but after checking out companies that did this, I found out it was too expensive. That's the reason why all those shirts ended up in storage. Could I live without the remnants of my running and racing past? I hesitated a bit, but since they have been out of sight and out of mind for years, I decided to finally dispose of them. I'll have deal with disposer's remorse later if and when it comes. The evidence of the countless 5k's, 10k's, 10 milers, half marathons, and marathons, soon would be gone.

          Among the other things that I disposed of that day were old computer parts, the inline skates which were kept in a backpack, a cycling/skating helmet, the speaker stands, blankets, and several towels. As for the 3 bags of race t-shirts, instead of putting them inside the dumpster, I set them on the outside, perchance someone might want them.
          One of the things I kept was the Razor type scooter, in case I need it for emergency transportation in the future. I was also able to reuse the old full size sheets for the new coil spring futon mattress I mentioned in a previous blog.
          Minutes after I left the three bags of shirts outside the dumpster, someone had already picked them up when I wasn't looking. The shirts have taken on a second life. I wish I could say that parting with them was such sweet sorrow but with me, the shirts will have no morrow.

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Cinco de Mayo AREC Run

The start of A Running Experience Club’s marathon training program for the Long Beach Marathon happened to fall on Cinco de Mayo. There were no Mexican decorations though, and the first day sign ups were more sparse than the last few years, but this is due to the Orange County Marathon on Seis de Mayo and the following weeks’ Wine Country Marathon. A lot of the usual participants were tapering for those and didn’t show up. Or...they kicked off their Cinco de Mayo celebration early and were knocking down Coronas at 7 in the morning. There were so few people that there was no line at the registration table nor the t-shirt or jacket table (the technical shirts were for first timers and the packable nylon jackets were for returning members). Well I was finally able to pick up my jacket 5 months after paying my annual dues and that’s because I never show up in the Wednesday evening runs. The style of the jacket was fairly nice with a hand warmer pouch, a front zip pocket, and a hoodie but it was made of cheap nylon cloth and very thin for a windbreaker. At least it had a nice club logo. Oh, by the way, Nadine, the person in charge of registration told me it was good that I was a small or medium because they ran out of large and extra large. When I tried on the small, it was still big for me. Oh the sizing woes of a petite sized man in a vanity sizing country. You can look up what vanity sizing means on your own. The main reason I showed up on the first day of training was to pick up that jacket. The week before, I was undecided whether to try running or walk like I did last year. After doing a 33 minute test run on the treadmill last Thursday and upon seeing that a couple of my running buddies were pacing the 12 minutes per mile group, I decided that I’ll try running with them, barring any residual pain in my ankles.

Because there were lesser people last Saturday, the usual long speeches were cut short. The distances for the day was 3 miles for the half marathoners and 5 miles for the full marathoners. I figured I may be able to run 5 miles in an hour. Besides I wanted to rejoin my running buddies whom I haven’t seen since last year. Michael and Rosie paced that group and I tagged along with them. They had become very experienced runners since finishing their first marathon 4 years ago and have run numerous halfs and fulls since then. I was in good hands or in this case, feet. After a mile and half I ran alongside Kathy whom I met two years ago when she was running about 9 ½ pace. I knew she had been injured too but wasn’t sure how long ago. It turns out that this was her first recovery run since running 21 miles at the Big Sur Marathon the week before. I had read in Runner’s World Magazine beforehand about the option of running “just” 21 miles or the full marathon. I hadn’t worn my GPS watch so I asked Kathy what our pace was at the turnaround point and she said about 11:45. Apparently she started loosening up at that after that because I felt the pace speed up just a little bit. At 4 miles, I told her that if she felt like picking it up and finishing strong to go for it. I didn’t mind getting left behind because my right ankle started to protest since mile 3. She stayed with me though and pulled me the rest of the way to the finish. For me, there was no pick up, no push, no charging up the last hill, and just barely hung on for dear ankles. The course a just short of 5 miles but that was good enough for me.

After catching up with friends before, during, and after the run, for this one day, I felt like I became part of the running community again. Sigh…did I miss running with all those people…

 Well, that concludes 5 straight days of blogging - a new record for me. I'm all tapped out of ideas. Till next time folks!

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Working The Long Beach Half Marathon

Well, as I mentioned a few weeks back after finishing a 12 mile walk, I was having difficulty finding someone to work for me on marathon day. I ended up selling my race packet to one of our club members, so instead of waking up at 4 a.m. Sunday morning and toeing the line at the Long Beach Marathon at 7 a.m., I was stuck at work doing my own version of work marathon. We had five admissions that night and I did four of them. That doesn’t really entail much. Just checking their vital signs, having them sign admission papers and checking their belongings. However, the amount of time it took me to do all of those admissions cumulatively, would have been the approximate time it would have taken me to finish the half marathon walk. How’s that for comparison? The difference was that I didn’t breath hard and didn’t sweat while doing the admissions and the calorie burn was negligible. No sports drinks, gels, or bloks required. We were shorthanded that night but thanks to our LVN’s who stepped up to relieve us for our breaks. Five admissions with three behavioral health workers is hard enough. With only two of us, it became more challenging. But just like what I expected to happen in the half marathon if I had walked it, my co-worker and I finished, and both happened in the city of Long Beach. By the way, when I checked my finishing time later, the guy who used my bib number completed the race in 1:57. I thanked him for giving me a sub 9 minute pace. It would have taken me sub 15 minute pace to have walked it otherwise.

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Saturday’s 12.1 Mile Walk and Schedule SNAFU

Well folks, I did my last long walk last Saturday morning, three weeks before the Long Beach Marathon. I know three weeks is a long time to taper for just a half marathon but it may take that long for my ankle tendons to recover, not to mention  left leg shin splints. I was finally able to summon the energy to wake up early Saturday morning so I could join our AREC running club. The marathoners were doing their second 20 miler while the halfers were doing 10. I wasn’t sure if I was going to start earlier than 7 a.m. or start with the whole group on time. Fortunately I saw Deb and asked her if I could walk with her. She was planning on doing 6 miles. We started with the whole group and by the first quarter mile we were trailing everybody. I haven’t talked extensively with Deb since she got a new job a few months ago, so that’s what we chatted about mostly, and also about the eating disorder - anorexia nervosa because she knew somebody who was having that problem. Her partner was out of town and was doing her 20 miler on trail in Maryland. Other than the first year of AREC training, Deb and Kate have been training with the group for 6 years now. Deb had already done 8 miles in prior weeks so she decided to cover the same distance on this day. We separated ways upon reaching 6 miles, she on the way to the finish and me on the way to the 10 mile turnaround point. Oh, boy, was I ever appreciative of her company because the 6 miles with her didn’t feel that long. So I continued on, turning around at Ocean Boulevard and 60^th Street. When I reached the finish, I decided to extend the walk one more mile out and a subsequent mile back with another 1/10^th tacked on. That way if I ever make it to the starting line three weeks hence, I know I could do 12.1 miles, and all I had to do was one more mile to finish.

There is however one glitch to this plan. Even though I’m already signed up for the race, I didn’t realize till last week that I’m scheduled to work that weekend. Last year the event happened to be on my weekend off and I mistakenly thought it was the same this year. I’ve been asking coworkers to work for me but so far none have been available. My only recourse may be to call in sick on Saturday night so I can do the race on Sunday morning. That would mean that the nursing supervisor would have to put me in to work the following weekend.

Given how bad my ankles have become in the past year (they are aching as I type this), I had planned this race as my last hurrah because dealing with the pain after long walks isn’t worth it any more. I can’t even do a walking workout more than twice a week. That’s why I really need to be at that starting line in three weeks. I’m still hoping that someone can cover my shift otherwise it would be an expensive race t-shirt for me with no finisher’s medal if I don’t make it to the race.

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Long Walks On Pavement

It was time to do another long walk, and last Thursday, it started with a trip to the grocery store which took me 20 minutes to get there and 20 minutes back. That only covered about 1/4^th of my intended time. After depositing the groceries at home, I resumed the workout. There was no set target this time like when I went up Signal Hill the previous week. More like meandering around the neighborhood. Like before, it was four minutes with aggressive arm swings with a one minute recovery. I don’t know if it was just one of those days, having no target, or the hotter than usual day, but it felt like a boring workout. A couple of lines from Adele’s song “Chasing Pavements” came to mind:

Should I give up,
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements?
Even if it leads nowhere…

My concentration was not very good and the pace wavered, but I kept on until I finally reached my goal of 2 hours and 45 minutes. I was just relieved when it was through. The pace was slower than the 2 ½ hour walk the previous week but the extra 15 minutes brought me closer to my goal half marathon distance.

When my ankles still allowed me to run, I would always go overdistance when training for half marathons. I don’t feel that this is necessary since I’m only walking the Long Beach half marathon this time. I feel that I could walk another 25 minutes and finish the race. There’s one hitch though. When I checked my new work schedule for October, I saw that I was supposed to work on the weekend of the race. Now I have to find someone to cover my shift and I hope one of my coworkers could do it.

Even with the heat last Thursday, I didn’t get drenched with sweat. Perspiration seemed to evaporate as quickly as they came out of my pores. In spite of that, I lost 4 pounds of fluids. When I got home, I rehydrated, iced my ankles, then bound them in braces to control possible swelling. A walking workout nowadays takes 4 to 7 days of recovery for my aching ankles. Ho hum, life’s like that now. Anyway, I managed to cover 11.36 miles in 2 hours and 45 minutes. If you remember, I did a 3 hour easy walk on my birthday (June 2) and covered 11.35 miles.

Oh well, sorry for the dreary post. It’s hard to follow a topic like the Tamarungs of Nangka-Nangka.

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To Signal Hill and Back

A view of Long Beach stretching towards the ocean - from atop Signal Hill with oil derricks in the foreground.

Well it was time for catch up mileage for my half marathon training. The AREC training group did 10 miles the other Saturday and I was hoping to equal the distance on Tuesday morning. That wasn’t a definite plan. I intended to walk southward and see where one hour would take me. It was a route I had taken so many times before while running, but only once have I done it while walking, which happened last winter. At that time, one hour brought me to four miles so it was an 8 mile round trip. On Tuesday (8/29/11), my strategy was to walk for 4 minutes while swinging my arms aggressively, then recover for 1 minute with a regular quick stride. See, I walk faster when I swing my arms aggressively. So the workout was similar to the 4 minute run/ 1 minute walk that I do. This day was also the first time I was going to use my recently acquired HD radio, but that’s a different  topic I’ll write about in another blog post.

The weekend heat wave had broken by Tuesday morning so it was cool when I started at about 8:15 a.m. My internal compass was pointed towards Signal Hill. I didn’t know if I was actually going to reach it since my winter walk in that direction didn’t even get me to the base of the hill. When I hit one hour on Tuesday, I was already at the base of Skyline Drive on Cherry Avenue. Instead of turning around for the hour walk back home, I proceeded up the hill instead. When I reached the peak, I stopped briefly to take some pictures with my cell phone. I wasn’t sure how they were going to turn out because I took them blindly since I couldn’t see the screen due to the glare. Then I continued the walk around the other side of the hilltop, then headed back down on the way home. Let me tell you, it’s rougher on my ankles to walk downhill than up, specially when the angle is very steep. I had to bend my knees more on the way down to lessen the shock on my ankles. I was on target to get home at 2 hours and 20 minutes so I had to do some dipsy doos on a few streets so I could reach 2 ½ hours. When I reached that time and clicked my GPS watch off, I merely a few steps from my door and had traveled 10.53 miles at a pace of 14 minutes and 15 seconds per mile. All this catch up mileage has given me shinsplints, but it doesn’t seem to affect my stride too much as compared to having them while running. Other than taking too much time, it was a pretty good walking workout. By the way, at the Track and Field World Championships yesterday, the winner of the women’s 20 kilometer (12.4 miles) walk was clocked at 1 hour, 29 minutes and 42 seconds.

An additional note here regarding weight and fluid loss: I woke up and started the walk at 116.2 pounds. Like I mentioned earlier, it wasn’t hot day. In fact it was a little cool at the start and it didn’t feel like I was sweating very much. I didn’t even feel thirsty. However I was surprised at my fluid loss when I weighed in after the workout. It was down to 112.8 pounds. Wow! I never thought I could lose that much fluids while walking.

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Snickers Marathon Bars – A Reconnection

A quick post : Last week I wrote about someone giving away energy bars (http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2011/07/running-afterglow.html). This is Kathleen , a very speedy runner who is sponsored by Snickers Marathon Bars. We both know another speedster named Marigold who now lives in Corpus Christi, Texas and is pregnant with her first child. I ran with Marigold about 7 years ago when she trained for her first marathon. I met Kathleen about 4 years ago at the Long Beach Marathon which she ran with Marigold and we reconnected at the AREC training run last week. Too bad I couldn’t keep up with their pace anymore. Thanks for the Marathon Bars Kathleen. They made for a good dessert that day!

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Minimalist Running (AREC Training 7-30-11)

Waking up to the alarm clock in mid-dream isn’t the best way to rise for the day but that was exactly what happened Saturday morning at 5 o’clock. It must have been a good dream because my first impulse was to turn the darn alarm off and resume the pre-alarm reverie. But, I’ve been looking forward to this run all week so I jumped out of bed before I could even press the snooze button. Wait, wait, I can’t do any more jumping whether it’s out of bed or elsewhere. Let me rephrase. I rose slowly out of bed before getting tempted to press the snooze button. After the usual routine of using the bathroom and checking email, I donned my running garb for the day. It was another surprisingly cool summer morning so I opted for a t-shirt day instead of a tanktop. It wasn’t one of those bare buns runs so I put on a pair of running shorts too. After tightening the shoelaces of my Asics Gel Foundation very snuggly, I was all set and headed out the door for the short drive to Joe’s Crab Shack.

                My previous warm up routine before both ankles were seriously injured was a mile to a mile and a half of slow running with a few strideouts towards the end. Nowadays, I am only able to do a few short jogs so as to save the ankles for the pounding that was to come later.

                I didn’t know who I would be able to pace with on this day but I espied Rosie, who I’d run with before, and her pace matched mine at the start so I joined up with her. She was one of those girls that I couldn’t catch up with three weeks ago when I started running again. For the first couple of miles I felt that I might be able to until later when I may have to do some walk breaks.

                It was one of those busy weekends in Long Beach along our running route. Between miles 2 and 3, there were dragon boat races going on at the beach side, so we had to run on the street side. We passed this area on the way out and on the way back. Somehow the dragon boat races didn’t look as crowded as in previous years. Anyway, Rosie and I chatted until club president Todd caught up with us, upon which we talked briefly about his and Rosie’s dog. I could feel the pace gradually pick up since Todd is a lot faster than us even though he was chopping his stride. I brought this to their attention so Rosie and I pulled back while Todd forged on. Rosie and I had a couple of pictures taken while coming and going at this point. Our club VP and intrepid photographer Dave just got back from Rwanda and Brussels and we missed him taking our photos while he was gone. We joined up with Nancy at about 4 miles and talked about real estate, wine, Rosie’s and my jobs, and Long Beach marathon history, which, helped me dissociate from the anticipation of pain in my ankles. While all this was going on we barely noticed that we had made it to 6 ½ miles. Nancy had to stop to re-tie her shoelaces so it was up to Rosie to bring me home to the finish. And bring me home she did and we even managed to tack on an extra half mile, thus completing 8 ½ miles for the day! In mid-run, I asked Rosie what her usual pace is for long runs and she said 10:30 to 11:00. The woman had that pace dialed in because when I checked my watch at the end, our pace was 10:28. I thanked her profusely and felt so happy that I forgot to stretch afterwards. I only remembered about it on the  way home and did it when I arrived. Did I have any ankle pain? That goes without saying, however it was more of a dull rather than intense pain and that was most likely due to the distraction of talking with people while running.

So how times in the previous week and how many miles of running did I do? Forget about minimalist shoes, this is minimalist training at its best. Last Tuesday, I ran/walk for 4 ½ miles then my only other run (without any walk breaks by the way!) was the 8 ½ miles on Saturday. Hurray! Almost a half marathon for the whole week! You won’t hear any complaints from me. After all I managed to run didn’t I?

Postscript: My pee was slightly dark yellow post-run because I sweated 3 pounds of fluids, but ingesting 48 ounces of fluids later, I was back to normal hydration.

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The Running Week That Was

Wow! Finally, after several months of inconsistent running, I was able to run three days last week. On Tuesday afternoon, it was run/walk for 55 minutes (4 minute run with 1 minute walk break), then on Thursday morning to and from the doctor, it was also a run/walk for 65 minutes. Would you believe that my pace for the run/walk was faster than my very slow 65 minute run the previous Saturday (10/2/10)?Finally, to end the week, on Saturday, I ran non-stop for 50 minutes. Let me backtrack a second. Did I want to show up for AREC’s last training run of the season for the Long Beach Marathon on Saturday, 10/9/10? I didn’t feel like waking up early and I actually still felt a little sleepy when I woke up to my alarm at 7 a.m., the time that AREC started their run. I didn’t get started until 8:30. Could the feeling of tiredness be the side effect of the flu shot I had on Friday? I wanted to try running alone on the bike path where I have been riding the last few months so I went out to the L.A. river path, which is about a 10 minute run at my pace. I’ve run there before but with other people two years ago when I was training with the Wrigley River Runners group. From a running perspective, it was a boring course especially when running solo because there was nothing to see or engage your senses very much. Even on a Saturday morning, there were few walkers, runners, or cyclists. I couldn’t wait to reach my turnaround point so I could get back out to the streets, which is exactly what I did on the way back home. Meanwhile the 50 minute run felt slow and I was gasping for air the whole time, more so after 30 minutes. Maybe because there were a couple of short hills at that point. Upon checking my post run weight, I saw that I had shed 3 ½ pounds of sweat in just 50 minutes of running. I didn’t know that was even possible for such a short run and it wasn’t particularly hot that morning. Nevertheless, it was very gratifying to be able to run non-stop even for just a little over 5 miles and managing to do three running workouts for the week to boot. Those were little physical accomplishments with big mental rewards for me. Sanity prevails!

Tune in tomorrow for the week that was in other parts of my life.

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A Little Bit Up, A Lot More Down

Ok, ok, nothing worth anything to write about since last weekend and when something finally comes up, it falls under too much drama with my running life. The high from last Saturday’s run has suddenly dropped to a resounding thud. Remember I mentioned in that post I felt a developing cramp on my right calf? After a couple of days rest, I tried to run again on Tuesday and there was still a lingering pain on the calf. As I approached 20 minutes, the calf began to hurt badly. Hoping to work out the kink as I was able to do last Saturday, I kept going but I couldn’t proceed after 25 minutes because of the sharp, stabbing pain. I had to walk the rest of the way back to my car. The pain wasn’t so bad when I was walking but as soon as I stopped and when whatever endorphins my body managed to manufacture in the short 25 minutes of running stopped working, it hurt like hell! I’ve been hobbling around my place and I’ve iced the calf a couple of times without any relief. The pain was on and off while at work depending on how the calf muscle flexed. I don’t think it was a developing cramp anymore but more like a muscle pull, strain, or worse, a tear. It’s going to be a few more weeks being laid off from running while the muscle heals. I’ve been riding the bike lesser since I restarted running a couple of weeks ago and I will have to ride more again. At least I have other options and the equipment is already available. As far as training for the Long Beach Marathon or Half Marathon, well, I may have to put that off this year and maybe request the organizers to transfer my entry to next year.

 What is surprising is that I have never had a calf injury before. I’ve hurt my hip, butt, knee, iliotibial band, ankle, and Achilles tendons numerous times in the past, but never the calves. I’ll chalk this up as a freak injury because I don’t know how it could have happened when I’m not exactly running hard enough to strain something. It will heal eventually and I will run again. It’s just a matter of time. I couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of my situation even though it can be a sad one. It’s almost like a roller coaster ride but mostly going down lately.

After a day of consideration, I visited the Long Beach Marathon website (www.runlongbeach.com) to find out the procedure to rollover my entry from this year to next year. To my consternation, the deadline was on August 31^st so that means my entry fee is gone since they don’t give refunds either. I emailed the contact person anyway appealing and hoping for dispensation.

Well, another injury timeout with R &R (rehab and recovery) for the next few weeks.

             Update: I just received a response from Bart Davis of Run Racing, the organizer of the Long Beach Marathon and in his email he said: “Because you are a member of AREC and I think that you guys are the best, I’ll be happy to do this for you.  Make sure and let the AREC crew know how much we appreciate you all!

 Your registration into the 2010 Long Beach International City Bank Marathon has now been rolled over to 2011.

Thank you so very much Bart!!! I’ll pass on the message to the AREC crew and how you and Run Racing has been very considerate despite my tardy request.

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Gone Mental For The Marathon

People who don’t run often ask me: “What? You have to pay to run 26 miles?!” Wouldn’t you know it but I did it again: paid $86.20 for another chance to take a tour of Long Beach on foot this coming October. What would possess a person to run marathons, do triathlons, or other feats of human endurance when all that is required to stay fit is 30 minutes a day of exercise? Sometimes I wonder about my mental health and if it’s a sane decision to run another marathon considering the condition of my ankles. I figured I was able to do it last year using the Galloway method for the first time, so I can probably try the same thing this year. Last year, I signed up for the half marathon and ended up switching to the full marathon. This year, I registered for the full marathon right away so I could commit myself mentally to training for it. Maybe I should be committed to a mental hospital instead. Nuff said.

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