Deer at Dusk

This last weekend of training before St. George presented me with something of a dilemma.  I really wanted to run a 5K race as a final dust buster before next week's marathon.  The problem is the only local 5K went off at 5:30 p.m. in 94 degree heat.  So I decided to run a leisurely 10 miles just as the sun started to set to beat the brunt of today's heat.

A little less then four miles into the run along the American River the deer began populating the edges of the trail.  They are surprisingly tame despite the comings and going of bikers and runners.  I kept a wary eye on doe's with their fawns.  I've seen pictures of does defending their babies.  It can be nasty.

Other than the deer it was a rather uneventful run.  My sciatica is only mildly annoying at this point.  I finally relented and had an x-ray taken of my right hip earlier in the week.  The fact that I haven't heard from my doctor tells me nothing serious is going on in my leg.  I'm positive the leg can stand the stress of a full marathon. 

Tomorrow I'm putting on my racing flats and will head over to the practice track at Sac State to run a three mile time trial.  I won't be able to come anywhere close to what I could run in a real race but at least it will give me one last hard effort where I get my legs going.  If I can run 12 laps in 22 minutes I'll be happy. 

Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own

I think it must be separation anxiety.  The Czarina paid me a visit over Labor Day weekend and I can't wait to see her again in ten days when we arrive within minutes of each other in Las Vegas.  This move to Sacramento isn't the first time we've spent time apart because of my profession.  She spent a hellish six months on her own with a wild man of a teenage son to look after while I established myself as a news director in Fargo.  It's remarkable that those events didn't destroy our less than year old marriage.

She's very tough and strong willed.  Above all the Czarina is courageous.  I don't know how else she made it through Fargo.  This move is different because we're both very much alone.  The boy was with us through the first two moves be he is now a grown man living his own, successful life in Southern California.  I have a couple of guitars and laptops to keep me entertained while she only has Rudy.

The early part of the separation was easy for her to endure because the visit from Masha, Vlad and Natasha.  But now I hear nothing but complaints about Rudy's unending quest to get her to feed him canned cat food instead of his dry food. 

Thankfully her job search moved into high gear after the Labor Day visit.  She's even had me dropping off resumes at a local state office.  The Czarina is an amazing programmer because she brings to her work the same things she brings to our marriage, passion and commitment.  She doesn't give up on any task, no matter how daunting.  I know this because I've seen the sweat, I've seen the tears, I've seen her break a wrist because of her stubbornness.  We're quite a match and I am ever so grateful that she hasn't give up on me.

Cold Irons Bound

"I’m beginning to hear voices and there’s no one around
Well, I’m all used up and the fields have turned brown."
Bob Dylan

That pretty much sums up my final long run in preparation for the St. George Marathon.  I decided to log an 18 mile run two weeks out from the race.  I never made it to a hoped for 21 mile effort but I'm okay with it.  Today I just wanted to survive and I barely did. 

Between a week of work filled with stress and a fairly high mileage week (52) for me I knew this morning's run would be a bear.  It was overcast and humid when I headed out and by the time I hit 11 miles I wanted the run to end.  I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and I made it home running just a shade over 9:30 pace.

I suspect I'm tired from last week's ten mile race.  I can look forward to two weeks of mostly easy miles now.  I want to do a time trial sometime in the middle of this week and a 5K race this coming weekend if possible. 

I've averaged just a shade under 40 miles a week for the year.  It's not considering my right hip is a mess, I moved all the way across the country, and I'm still a good 15 pounds over what I would consider a decent racing weight. 

My coaching friend Mike told me I should just shoot for a 4 hour marathon at. St. George.  I appreciate his logic, why hurt? My response was, why did I do all this work just to run 4 hours?  I think he's just jealous.  Despite his considerable running and coaching accomplishments I don't think he's ever broken 3 hours for 26.2 miles.

Buffalo Stampede 10 miler

A tough week at work and a so-so week of training left me wondering what would happen Sunday morning.  I signed up weeks ago for a 10 mile race figuring it would be a good test for St. George.  But as I rolled out of bed I could tell I had made a mistake not eating a full meal the night before and I felt extremely sluggish.  I chugged down as much water as I could stand, took care of business in the bathroom and headed to Rio Americana High School for the 8 a.m. start. 

The flat course was a basic out and back with very few turns.  I was hoping I could average 7:45 per mile.  I even wore my racing flats hoping for an added edge.  Normally I wear light trainers for longer races.

A race called the Migration had started a half hour earlier for slower runners.  More than 300 runners lined up for the Stampede and I could tell it was going to be a fairly warm morning with almost nothing to call a breeze.  The horn sounded and I got out at what I felt was a solid pace.  I must have been passed by 50 runners in the first mile which I clocked in a comfortable feeling 7:30.  Though I had gone out fast I wasn't worried as another two dozen runners whizzed by over the next mile and I had to keep an eye out for the slower runners doubling back on the course.

By mile three I had settled into a steady 7:45 pace and I was now beginning to catch runners who had taken it out too fast.  I didn't catch many over the next seven miles but I held my pace and took water at nearly every aid station due to the heat.  As I headed into the last mile it appeared that 77:30 was doable even though my Garmin was showing that the course was long.  I hit 10 miles on my Garmin in 77:11, a good 200 meters from the finish.  I was a little disheartened but worked my way to the finish, my chip time showing 78:05.  The course was .14 long according to my Garmin, making up for the .14 that was missing from the Modesto Midnight Half Marathon.

It was a hard effort, much harder than Modesto.  And I'm much more tired hours after the race than I was after the half.  Another two weeks of hard training remains. Given Sunday's effort I really believe a sub 3:30 marathon is a possibility in St. George.

Hay Is in the Barn

It occurred to me as I ran an easy 10 miles tonight that St. George is three weeks away.  The realization sort of stunned me.  I'm running a 10 mile road race on Sunday so that means no long run.  That leaves one final long run the following weekend.  That part of the grind will be over.

This has been a difficult week training wise.  I've felt very stale.  I tried to do a hard tempo run on Wednesday and my body just wouldn't let me.  I had to laugh when later that night I was reading some posts on my favorite message board about the great coach, Arthur Lydiard.  When one of his talented runners, Barry Magee, told Arthur he felt stale, Lydiard told him to do three straight days of 22 miles. 

I haven't even managed one 20 miler leading up to this marathon but my training has been remarkably consistent since the beginning of the year.  My mileage has been steady between 35 and 40 miles a week.  I managed 180 miles for the month of August and that's with a trio of days off thrown in for good measure.  I've enjoyed my best stretch of training since 2002/2003. 

I feel confident that at the very least I will run under the Boston qualifier in three weeks unless something really untoward happens.  In fact a race under 3:30 seems well within my reach.  But I guess I should be focused on Sunday and the 10 miler before me.  I would like to think I can run 77:30 but I'm going to try and do what I did at Modesto.  I plan to take it out easy and slowly ratchet down the pace.  Based on two weeks ago something under 79 minutes should be within my reach.

Now I just need to find a 5K for the week before St. George to sharpen what little speed I possess.  There are plenty of races in the area, I've just got to figure out which one makes the most sense. 

San Bruno Misery

It never fails when I land a new job.  Something terrible seems to happen sometime within the first year on the job.  During my first tour as an intern at KMBC it was the Coates House Fire that killed 20 people.  In Minneapolis it was the riots at the Red Lake Indian Reservation.  When I hit Little Rock a Titan II missile exploded killing some airmen.  Back to Kansas City and while it took a little longer than usual the Hyatt Crown Center sky walk collapse killed more than 100 people.  When I got to Phoenix a flight passenger jet bound for the Valley from Detroit crashed on takeoff killing a lot of people from the area.  You get the idea.

Tonight a huge natural gas line exploded in the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno.  It's one of the few communities in the Bay Area that I am somewhat familiar with.  I used to date a woman who lived there.  The destruction is beyond believe.  Block after block of homes were consumed by the fire.  So far the death toll is only one, but I suspect there may be victims we don't know about at this moment. 

Technically this disaster didn't happen in the Sacramento coverage area but it's less than a two hour drive from our newsroom to where it all happened.  I'm proud of the way our reporters, photographers, and producers responded tonight.  Our assignment editor did yeoman's work tweeting and putting updates on Facebook throughout the night while coordinating directions with the crew.  It made for a 13 hour day but that's nothing to the monster hours I've pulled during hurricane coverage.  Here's hoping that we don't have more excitement like tonight for a very long time.

The Czarina Visits!

It took three months but the Czarina got on an evening flight last Friday from Fort Myers and paid me a weekend visit in Sacramento.  The poor girl was tuckered out by her cross country journey but that didn't stop her from devouring a bag of potato chips when she got to my apartment.  She also managed a quick critique of my housekeeping, which while negligent, was better than she expected.

We enjoyed a morning run along the American River Trail.  The Czarina was thrilled at getting in a run without feeling like she was in a sauna.  She wanted to see the surrounding countryside so I took her to Auburn and we made a stop at Ikeda, a tourist favorite for burgers, fresh fruits and pies.  She picked up a bag of dried banana chips while I inquired about a good place to go for a hike.  The Czarina wanted to make a trip into the wilderness by foot so we were directed to a trail about four miles outside of town.

The fun started as we headed out Forrest Hills Road and across a very high bridge that spans a branch of the American River.  Even though we were traveling on a very wide and nice two lane blacktop the Czarina was in full freak out mode.  By the time we had crossed the bridge and made it to the turn off for the trail she was demanding that we leave.  I proceeded to creep my Ford Escape down a windy blacktop toward the trail and her demands only intensified.  The drop offs were pretty frightening but it wasn't anything to get too riled about.

I finally found a spot to pull off and we took a gander at the beautiful valley.  It was breath taking and she wanted pictures but she refused to drive down to the bottom of the canyon where the rivers converge.  She did insist on stopping at the bridge for another scenic view and then it was off to her favorite destination of the entire trip, the Thunder Valley Casino.

The scary trip must have done something to her appetite because at the buffet she went through three plates of food including two steaks and two trips to the dessert bar.  The Czarina can eat but her performance at Thunder Valley was amazing.  We got in a good three hours of gambling and called it a night and headed home where we watched the worst movie about running ever made called "Running."

Sunday's highlights included a 14 mile long run around massive Land Park and a trip to the station.  She finally got a chance to see where I worked.  We also toured some of the neighborhoods in East Sacramento, Fair Oaks, and Carmichael.  We even went as far east as the dam at Folsom Lake which was pretty cool to see.

Sadly, our visit ended Monday morning as I had to drive her to the airport and head into work to produce the 5 p.m. news.  The Czarina had a good time and agreed that Sacramento was a pretty cool place. Hopefully this will put some umpf in her job search.  Our next rendezvous is just three weeks away when we hook up in Las Vegas for our marathon adventure in St. George!