Taking a break

Wow. Had I known there was such a whiny post sitting on the top of this page for so long I would have done something about it. Then again, if there is one thing that runners (me) can do well it’s whine. Runners – or at least me – can make excuses and complain about just about everything.

It’s too windy. The course was too hilly. The course had too many downhills. The course was too flat. Who can control the weather?

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Anyway, here’s today’s excuse: I haven’t updated this page in so long because I actually took some days off from running. Two days to be exact. The plan was for one, but that morphed into two much to my chagrin.

Rest, of course, is the cornerstone to any solid training program. Muscles and all of that other running stuff work better when they are strong, fit and not fatigued. That’s where rest comes in. At the same time, rest is important to keep one from breaking down or getting hurt. So it makes sense that a smart runner should rest up from time to time.

Right?

Yet for some reason taking a day off is incredibly difficult. Why? Well, runners and athletes, by nature, are obsessive. They know the only way to stay ahead of the competition or to get closer to reaching a goal is to work hard. However, there is a point of no return. A racecar can only spend so much time in the red before it starts to fall apart.

That last sentence was the extent of my mechanical knowledge.

Nevertheless, the day extra day off this week made me bounce off the walls of my house and drive everyone within those confines crazy. Instead of running I did sit-ups on my exercise ball every five minutes. When I wasn’t beating the hell out of my abdominal muscles, I ate all the junk food I made a point to ignore during my training. Actually, I ate the junk food close to bedtime and before and after dinner.

Talk about a mess.

Aside from that, the initial, planned day off was very nice. My wife and I traveled to a swanky oceanfront hotel in Rehoboth Beach, went out for a nice dinner and soaked in the Jacuzzi in our suite. Almost instantly, all of my tired and overused muscles started to feel better. My hip was no longer creaky and my hamstrings felt pliable again.

But after the second day I wanted to put my head through a wall and go run. The problem was that I had too much to eat and I’m one of those guys who has to run on an empty stomach.

I did just that from Tuesday to Friday, cranking out easy, easy 10 to 11-mile runs at 6:50 to 7-minute pace. On Saturday morning I’m supposed to run the Northern Central Trail Marathon as a long run. I don’t plan on racing or taking the pace anywhere past 6:20 or engaging in anything too strenuous. Basically, I’m just going out for a long run with the hope of burning off some of the crap I’ve eaten in the past week of slovenly living and to pad my stats. Fourteen marathons is better than 13.

On another note, I have determined which races I plan on running in 2007. I’ll reveal those later.

Whining about the wind

It’s been difficult coming to terms with the result of Sunday’s race. Yes, I understand that running is a sport where there are many elements and variables that are out of the athlete’s control. And yes, I understand that sometimes it really doesn’t matter how hard a runner has trained or how fit they are.

Sometimes stuff just happens. It rains or gets too hot. The wind blows. What can you do?

That’s the smart rationalization, of course. But as I warmed up to run in yet another rainy, humid and windy day here in Central Pennsylvania I wondered why I felt the need to explain my race to everyone who asked about it instead of simply accepting the austerity of the outcome.

Why can’t there be an asterisk next to my 2:54:21 indicating that it was a wind disabled performance? They do that for wind-aided performances, right? Can’t it be a two-way street?

Along those lines I felt the need to look up the evidence from Dr. Jack Daniels that states running into a 15-m.p.h. headwind at 6:00 per mile takes the same amount of energy as running a five-minute mile. So if I ran into winds heavier than that with 32-m.p.h. gusts, how much time did I lose? Ten minutes? More? Less?

“You really haven’t had very good luck with the weather this year,” a friend pointed out, noting that I wilted in the heat during the Vermont City Marathon last May.

True enough. It was hot in Vermont that last Sunday in May. But I’d also wasn’t in great shape, either, having only come out of retirement eight weeks before the race. I needed perfect weather that day to run to the highest level of my potential. That wasn’t the case this time around. I was fit and trained despite noting that I was “a year away” from a good marathon. Rain or heat was not going to limit me this time.

Wind is a different story.

Nevertheless, before the whining and continued explaining gets too thick, I toughed out 10 miles in 1:11:49 despite driving, flooding rain and steady – yet tempered – winds. My recovery is going well, but I still have to relax a bit and heal. I actually entertained the idea of staying indoors and skipping the run because my right hip and hamstring are still a bit sore and my lower back is a bit tight, also, but then thought better of it.

Seriously, what am I going to do – not run? Because it was raining?

Ha!

Tomorrow’s forecast is much improved than today’s rain and flash-flood warnings. We’re supposed to have partly cloudy skies with 54-degree temps. I guess I’ll go out and run.

Running nugget
Here’s a story about Bill Rodgers, a guy who never complained about a day spent running, as remembered by former rival Art Hall.