I hear it's possible to do marathons on only short runs

That's what I hear. I may be testing that out in March.

7 miles today - trying to get a longer run out of the way before the weather turned bad, but I had a bad attitude and cut it short.

BUT I did see a pair of fabulous bald eagles standing on the golf course eating something. They're impressive, unmistakable birds. Well, unmistakable after you see the white heads and tails and realize they're not the typical turkey hawk buzzards we get in huge swarms around here feeding on carrion.

First snow

The first fluffy, heavy, wet snow of the year is coming down now, with 1-3 inches forecast. I just got home from walking the girls to school and they phoned me for a one-hour early dismissal. Since I just got done eating my lunch, that means no run for me today! (Actually the roads are slippery enough that I had already decided against it).

Math problems

If 7 ounces of garlic-infused olive oil is spread over half the kitchen floor and most of the clothing and four feet of two small four-year olds. . . .

What would be the half-life of getting the smell out of the house?

And how long does the coefficient of friction of the kitchen floor remain near zero?

Fortunately, we can assume for purposes of this problem that less than 1 percent of the oil by volume was tracked into the adjacent carpet.

More speedwork

Well, that didn't exactly work as planned! I went over to the track with my Garmin and did 8x100 (warmup and then one fast 100 within each quarter-mile lap of the track), and motivated myself by thinking of the lovely plot I would have with 8 beautiful little dips that went deep into Single Digit Pace Land. Unfortunately it seems that the Garmin doesn't record pace very frequently and my speediness was so quick it missed several of the sprints.

Oh well, I'll wear the heart rate meter next time which has a higher sampling rate and shows more detail.

My LEGS know that I've done some speed work (and that's what counts), even if my pace plot doesn't show it.

Flags

Just for the record, I adore the Maryland state flag. I want a bike jersey made up of it. Its eye-catching combination of the Calvert arms and the Crossland arms would surely ward off all evil cars.

But this guy has the audacity to diss my favorite flag. "Maryland is worth special mention for managing to jar the eyes without resort to an easy out like excessive typography or detailed portraiture." Harrumph.

His analysis is based on the methodology of this grading of the flags of the world, which I thought was hilarious.

Disney again? AGAIN?

Every time I go back to the Disney races I swear them off forever, mainly because the logistics of dealing with the races inside the parks are usually horrendous. Not to mention those 2:30AM wake up calls.

But registration just opened again for the 2009 Walt Disney World Marathon ($110+), Half Marathon ($100+), and Goofy Challenge ($235+).

But I'm not STUPID. I'm thinking I'll just do something little that won't kill me for walking around the parks, like maybe the half.

And maybe the kids' races with the girls, of course!

Can't wait to hear Holly's race reports!

Five miles around the neighborhood

So I cut my long run short yesterday - a little over 7 miles instead of double that number that I should have done. So I figure I'll do a little extra running this week to "make up for it", even though making up for it is generally a bad idea. But my legs felt okay today and I did a little over five miles, looping around the neighborhood.

It was good to see my pace got stronger as I went along, except when I stopped to check out "house for sale" flyers, even though I wasn't especially paying attention to pace.


Hmm, so far about 45 miles for the month and it's only the 14th. I wonder if I could break 100 running miles for the first time for January?

Here we go again

Going back again to Michigan to see if I can get it right this time! (Have you ever noticed that's how triathlon sucks you in and keeps you coming back? There's always one or two things that you could have done a little faster or more smoothly).


Note to the Race Gods: No flats, this time, please!? K THX.

I can't get anything done in 25 minutes

That's what I was thinking when I looked at the clock and realized that I had frittered away almost all of my valuable time when the girls were in school today. But then I caught myself and climbed out of that negative thinking trap - SOMETHING is better than NOTHING today, right?

So I headed over to the school track for a quick few laps before I picked up the girls.

Let's see, if I do this right I have time for 8 laps. I'm ready to go after my walk over.

1. 3:02. Ouch, I'm feeling creaky.
2. 2:51. OK, my knee stopped hurting. Now I can run semi-normally.
3. 2:44. That's not so creaky, starting to warm up.
4. 2:43. I wonder if I can do every lap faster than the last? Let's hit it!
0:22. Pause to remove hot vest and gloves.
5. 2:23. Woot! Whew, that got me out of breath. Not bad.
6. 2:44. OK, I can breathe again. One more time, faster than the last.
7. 2:22. That's better.
8. 2:55. OK, warm down, and go get the girls.

22:10: Total time for 2.0 miles and pause including a half mile at 9:30 min/mile pace.

Not a lot of distance by endurance athlete standards, of course, and not a lot of speed by most runner standards, but it's still probably more distance than a lot of people ran in the entire year of 2007. In less time than many moms spend sitting in their cars waiting for their kids to get out of school every day.

Warm weather cycling

Woo hoo, another wonderfully warm day today! High of 66*F here today. I don't usually ride my bike much while my girls are in school, because I'm paranoid about crashing or flatting and being late and having no one able to pick them up from school. But today I couldn't resist! Even though the winds were gusting up to 30 mph, I couldn't resist taking Buttercup out for a spin on our nice country roads.

Gosh, it sure felt like I was working harder on that return leg to maintain some speed, but the heart rates tell the tale - I was working just as hard on the way out into the wind when I was only going 14 mph. I guess that's just going to be my Poor Woman's Power Meter because I'm not going to spring for the real thing.

I realized something else new on this ride: a new important cycling safety feature. My NEON DAY-GLO WHITE LEGS in January in cycling shorts are a big deterrent to cars. I was surprised that none of the drivers had to scream and cover their eyes from the glare.

My body composition work is going well in preparation for my March races - I'm 80% decided that I'll do the full marathon instead of the half marathon on March 2nd, and so far I'm 2.4 pounds down for the first 8 days of 2008. More than a kilogram less to carry around the course! Hurrah! I'm definitely hoping to keep this trend going in the same direction all the way until race day!

What's a decade of your life worth?

In a survey of 1000 women age 18 and older in Fitness Magazine, 21% of respondents said they would trade ten years out of their life if it would allow them to be their ideal body weight.

How very, very sad. Obviously it's not Psychological Fitness Magazine. The anguish inflicted upon overweight women by themselves and by society is far more damaging than any direct impact of excess body fat on their health.

Spring is here!

Today it got up to 68*F here! It was gorgeous!

I should have run, but instead I just took a lovely walk down to enjoy the peaceful water views in our harbor.

Life is good.

Same for tomorrow - hurrah! Maybe I'll take a nice long bike ride again. We're marking out a flat flat flat and fast 40 km Individual Time Trial cycling course along the highway near here and hopefully I'll have enough time to ride the whole thing and double-check the turnaround.

Hilarious

Do any of you fellow bloggers have someone who reads your blog religiously - literally for years - but pretends that they don't? ("Huh? What bizarre behavior!" Yeah, I know. Of course that person can never admit to having seen this post, either.)

It cracks me up. Gosh, why in the world would they be interested in my ramblings?

You know, it also cracks me up when someone who professes to be Christian uses the Internet to post anonymous slams at people. Repeatedly - even takes the time to make up a fake name just to leave comments with. What a testimony of courage and compassion! Gosh, that's certainly what Jesus would do, isn't it? Matthew 18:15-22, Matthew 19:17-19.

In other blogger news, if you were a member of the Running Blog Family, please head over to their newly revised site and re-submit your listing. It will be great to have the running-related blogs indexed by all those different variables.

Time is running out!

Do you believe in a God who responds reliably to prayer? Do you believe in the supernatural? Do you know anyone who has paranormal powers? Do you think those guys on TV really get messages from dead people?

James Randi's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge is still in effect - a million smackeroos to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.

However, it will end in two years. Get your application here.

Now remember - don't burden them with theories, philosophical observations, previous examples, anecdotal evidence or other comments! They are only interested in an actual demonstration. They also will not accept claims of the existence of deities or demons/angels, the validity of exorcism, religious claims, cloudbusting, causing the Sun to rise or the stars to move, etc. - just show them the evidence under controlled conditions.

I really think Pat Robertson should apply, since God has been talking to him about the results of the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

Or is your God so omnipotent that He can deliberately mess up the results of any experiment that any mere human can devise to demonstrate His power? What, He won't cooperate even if the money was to be donated to a good cause? That just doesn't seem nice.

He didn't respond positively to prayers for the recovery of over 1800 people undergoing heart surgery - in fact, He induced more complications in the people who knew they were being prayed for. Nor did He help heart patients being prayed for by Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist groups in another study involving 748 subjects. Now that doesn't seem very kind and merciful - in fact, He seems pretty obstinate and cantankerous. "Gosh, Mr. Heart Patient, it's a darned shame that you were enrolled in that prayer study, because otherwise God surely would have responded to those intercessory prayers and you would have been fixed up right as rain. . . ."

First swim of the year

Just got back from the pool at the Y - signed up the girls for 6 weeks of ballet lessons starting in January!! What fun!

Also just wanted to record my times for reference later in the year. I did what I think of as a 3 - 2 - 1 workout: Sets of 300 yards, 200 yards, and 100 yards. Repeated three times today with a short warmup and warmdown to yield 2000 yards. Keeps it a little more interesting.

300, 200, 100 * 1: 7:11, 4:36, 2:22
300, 200, 100 * 2: 7:08, 4:49, 2:22
300, 200, 100 * 3 * pull buoy: 6:53, 4:40, 2:18

Planning on running a slow half marathon workout tomorrow, plus maybe another 500 yards for a nice warmdown swim (or warmup, depending on how cold it is in the morning).

Racial issues

I was fairly concerned when I heard my 4-year-old Catherine saying something about "black Negro".

It seems she was eating a pretzel and part of it was slightly blackened. So she was calling it by a Spanish word she had picked up somewhere, negro (which means black).

But I have no idea where she picked up that particular pronounciation. I corrected her and told her that the Spanish word was nay-gro.

Nation's Triathlon

This Olympic-distance race is looking pretty darned good for next September 14th, I think! The new course looks fabulous!

Registration is open NOW for USAT members only, opens tomorrow to everyone. Less than last year, I think, also: $150 (plus $10.75 to active.com). http://www.thenationstriathlon.com/

I'm in!!! I'm starting to like the Olympic distance as my favorite triathlon distance. Long enough that you don't have to sprint the whole race with your eyes bleeding; short enough that you aren't dead and can actually do something else the same day.

Who's with me?

First run of the year

Around the neighborhood for 5.2 miles at an 11:30 min/mile pace. That'll do for now! Not very substantial compared to my crazy training buddy Dave who rode 120 freakin' miles yesterday, but anyway, I'm sane and he's not. ;-)

And what do you know, I'm down 0.8 pounds and 0.4% body fat for the year to date! Gosh, if I could keep that up all year, I'd have zero percent body fat and weigh less than nothing!! Er, maybe that means I'd be dead. . . . let's not tempt the Fates. Let's call it daily variation in the correct direction. Yeah, I don't want to be obsessive about it - I just wanted a starting point on the first of the year, and then doing my usual weekly weigh-in today, which I do on a Wednesday to avoid the fluctuations from weekend workouts and indulgences.

It's going to be a great year.

Those pesky goals (here we go again)

I had a truckload of process goals for 2007. Frankly, way too many to track and pay attention to very well. But things were going along well enough until I had a major computer crash in midsummer and lost the Excel spreadsheet on which I had been keeping my records. I think I have it back now on a rebuilt computer, but the recordkeeping ground to a halt when that happened.

I started just logging my workouts in the sidebar, and totaling them manually, which was such a pain that I developed an enormous backlog of un-summarized records that I still have to clear up. Right now I don't even know how far I swam, ran, or rode in 2007, although I believe my totals ended up lower than the previous couple of years.

I enjoyed my events this year quite a bit, and made lots of progress in my speed and fitness levels - setting a total of TEN PRs while maintaining my body weight. My 2008 season is going to look a lot like 2007, with a few more running events. I plan to complete (carpooling with my training buddy Dave) an 8-race Championship Series put on by one of our local running clubs, Annapolis Striders (at least 7 of the races, that is - I may have at least one date conflict with a triathlon, but 7 races should be enough for me to make the top ten in my age group and work up from there in the 2008 standings).

For right now I'd like to keep my 2008 process goals simple and pegged on simple weekly goals, which seems to keep me on track in continually improving my fitness and performance:

• Log my intake at least 5 days per week, striving for a 500-700 calorie daily deficit until I hit an 8% body fat reduction (from January 1st, 2008).
• Swim at least 2500 yards per week.
• Run at least 12 miles per week.
• Ride at least 25 miles per week.
• Count the weeks for each of the above, striving for 80%+ completion (42 weeks out of 52).

Those swim, bike, and run workouts should include at least one long less-slow distance workout (1+ hour swim, 2+ hour run, 3+ hour bike) and a set of high-intensity intervals (speedwork) every 7-10 days, but I'm not going to quantify that right now, just work it into the routine.

I think I'm going to start this year keeping my Excel workout log on Google docs to crashproof it and keep it in a place that I can get to from any computer.

Body composition work

I'm starting 2008 1.0 pounds heavier and 0.9 body fat percentage points fatter than I started 2007. (On January 1, 2007 I was 19.0 pounds less than my highest weight of January 2006).

Actually, the January 2007 and January 2008 readings are well within my normal day-to-day variation - I basically maintained the same body weight throughout 2007. But I'd prefer to be moving in the negative direction instead of the positive direction, of course.

In the first 4.5 months of 2008 I'd like I plan to drop that body fat percentage by about 8.0 points, in order to carry much less weight around the hills on the Columbia Triathlon course in mid-May. That should get my BMI down to the "normal" range of 25.4 or less.

How will I accomplish that? I've got about 19 weeks to do it. A 500 calorie deficit per day should just about meet my goal - and that's not such an extreme calorie restriction that I will start feeling hungry and deprived (and consequently, have rebound eating from excessive hunger). It's eating at maintenance on days I run 10 kilometers. More exercise equals more food for me! NO it's not a diet - it's sensible HEALTH monitoring and very gradual change.

The hard parts are a) doing it consistently day after day, and b) tracking every calorie in and out.

But the results will be OH SO WORTH IT!! FREE SPEED!!

Let the Games begin!