Friday Update

Wednesday I took off the day from running. But I did get in some exercise. I rode my bike to work from the Jenks bridge. It's just under 11 miles, and I did it in just over 40 minutes, which is just under 16 mph. On the return trip I thought I would try to speed things up a bit. At 21st Street I went across to the west bank because I figured there would be less pedestrians to deal with. It was pretty smooth going until the hills heading up to the parking lot at Turkey Mountain. I was averaging almost 18 mph until I hit those hills. They were pretty tough, and I slowed to 7 mph, which dropped my average to about 17. But then at 71st Street I headed back to the east bank and hit almost 29 mph going down the hill. Once on the east bank, I headed south towards the Jenks bridge. Near the casino my calves started twitching a little, and then - with the bridge in sight - WHAM! My right calf just seized up. I don't think I have ever had a cramp that bad. I had trouble getting my feet out of the clips, but I did manage to stop without falling down. After about a five minute rest, and drinking considerable water, I proceeded very slowly the last 100 yards or so to the bridge and then across the bridge to the west bank, where I was parked. My average speed up to the place where I cramped was 18.1. Distance was about 12 miles.

So, I loaded the bike in the van and drove the rest of the way home. When I got out of the van, I couldn't walk. I barely made it to the front door - sort of hopping, sort of dragging my leg. I must have looked pathetic. I iced down the calf a while then sat in the whirlpool. Still after an hour or so, I was was barely walking. I was planning on going to church with my wife, but I couldn't make it. Instead I sat in the recliner and watched a couple of movies, "Dan In Real Life" and "Enchanted," with Becky and Katie.

Thursday I took my running gear to work but did not run at noon. I was feeling good enough to run with the group in the evening. Brian and I ran with Justin, a sophomore high school student that is training to do the Tulsa Run. We did about five easy miles.

Today I ran four miles or so at lunch. I saw Joe, and he and I are going to meet at 68th & Riverside to run on Saturday at 7 am. Anyone who sees this in time is welcome to join us. I'm thinking of doing ten or twelve miles. It was pretty hot at noon, so I took it rather slow. At Veteran's Park I stopped to do some pull ups and push ups. Before long I'll be ready to do some gymnastics! (NOT!) It looked like they were setting up stuff for tonight's race, the Kidney Klassic. I won't be running in it. I will be having a nice dinner, thinking of my friends who will be melting in the heat.

Tuesday

At lunch today I started out for a four mile easy run. On the way I met two new friends, Jim, and John, just as I passed TCC. They invited me to run with them, which I did. We headed south on Boston and at 18th Street John headed back. Jim and I headed on to the pedestrian bridge via the Midland Valley Trail and had a great time conversing. We both went to K State, and he at one time considered going out for the track team. Well, actually DeLoss Dodds, the athletic director, asked him to join the track team after he saw Jim win the intramural track meet. Hearing that name brought memories of when several of us guys used to run with the K State girls cross country runners. One time one of the girls asked us if we had seen DeLoss Dodds that day, and me, being the ignorant freshman, not knowing who he was, thought she was asking if we had seen "the lost dogs." So when I replied that I hadn't seen any lost dogs, everybody laughed at me and then explained who DeLoss was.

Oh well, that little story probably holds no meaning for any of you readers, but it brought back pleasant memories for me.

Anyway, back to the noon run. Jim and I made it to the pedestrian bridge and back downtown. On Boston, just as we were about finished, we saw Joe Hartl. I haven't seen him for a long time. Joe said he showed up Saturday to run with the group, but since I was at Day Ohn Day we missed another run together. Oh well, maybe next Saturday. I finished the run at about 5.2 miles. A little longer than I had planned, but I had a good time.

In the evening I met the RunnersWorld group, but I sort of ran alone because I wanted to do half mile repeats. The plan was to do six repeats at 3:30 with 1:45 rest in between. I got the first three in with times of 3:11, 3:26, and 3:35. Then I felt too pooped to complete the plan. I ran back some with Kathy and then stopped to do pull ups as she went on ahead. When I hit the next mile marker, I decided to do one last half and see how close I could come to 3:30. It ended up at 3:33. After that I walked a bit until Stefanie and Sarah pulled up beside me, and then I finished my run with them.

I finished the day by going to my oldest daughter's new apartment and having dinner and watching "Phantom of the Opera." It was a good day.

Memorial Day

I got home from Little Rock early Thursday afternoon, much to the relief of my worn out wife. It had been quite a week while I was gone. Katie had her tonsils out on Tuesday, which is supposed to be a pretty simple outpatient procedure. Well, that afternoon, after she had spit out quite a bit of blood during the day, she started vomiting blood and looked quite white. Marilyn called the doctor and took Katie to the emergency room. The doctor put Katie under again and cauterized a bunch of blood vessels that apparently did not did closed off good the first time around. They thought about giving her a transfusion, but opted instead to keep her overnight in the hospital and monitor her blood count. She came home Wednesday afternoon, and that evening discovered she had lice. When I got home, it was apparent that Marilyn had been very busy trying to get all the bedding and clothes that Katie may have contacted washed. And then Thursday night we had a birthday party for Sarah at Pump-it-Up for which we still had to make a few preparations. I got my Thursday evening workout racing a few high school kids on the obstacle course.

Friday I did a five mile run at noon. The plan was to take it nice and easy, but when I encountered the heat and humidity, that meant the run included quite a bit of walking.

Saturday I ran in the Day Ohn Day 5k. RunnerWorld has a good race report. I PRed, finishing in 22:27. I started the race thinking I might finish in about 22:30, so I was pleased.

Sunday our church had its Memorial Day weekend picnic, so I headed out early to help set up tables and tents and Jupiter jumps. I was pretty worn out afterwards, so I pretty much just sat around most of the evening. Watched "Where Eagles Dare," a good WW2 movie featuring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.

This morning, after the rain, I went on a bike ride. Legs felt sore the whole way, but I still managed 16.5 mph over the hilly 14.8 miles.

Karen Call's Full Moon

Got up early and met Karen Call and her running group at 5:30 this morning. I was introduced to everyone in the group, which was comprised of two guys and a bunch of women. The names I remember are Karen, David, Jeff, Kirsten, and April. We started at the Salon Avatar/Full Moon parking lot and went south and east on Kavanaugh Blvd. on an out and back that was 4 miles. I thought I would stick with the two guys, but it was a pretty fast pace, and I walked a bit at about three miles until the first group of women caught up. I started chatting with the women and found that most of them had run marathons, at anywhere from a 3:40 to a 4:02 time. We finished the four miles averaging just under a 7:45 pace. Then the group regathered, and Karen, David, Jeff, Kirsten, and I started the hill workout. We headed sort of north, uphill on Kavanaugh and went past Cantrell Rd. After a mile Kirsten and I headed back. The others were going to do a total of 7.3 miles, but I was happy to quit at six. The last two miles were done at a more reasonable 9+ minute pace. The group was exceedingly nice, and I had a great time running with them.

Ride of Silence

I rode with the Bicycle Advocacy of Central Arkansas group tonight. We started out at about 5:45 and rode at a leisurely pace, averaging about 13 mph. We started on the south side of the Arkansas River at the trail head circle at the bottom of the River Mountain Road. From there we went across the Big Dam Bridge to the trails on the north side (where I ran yesterday).

On the return trip we headed north through the golf course, across I40 and then back through Burns Park. The roads through Burns Park were nice. They were rolling hills going through woods. It was the best part of the ride.

After we got back to the starting point, I rode to the top of River Mountain Road. It was a pretty steep climb, and I slowed to just over 6 mph, using my lowest gear. Coming back down the road I coasted the whole way and got over 40 mph before I applied my brakes.

At 7 we met again at the trail head and did the Ride of Silence, which was a slow paced silent ride to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured by motorists. As you can see in the picture below, I rode for Philip, who was killed in 2007. We rode to Alltel at a slow pace, and then it seemed that most of the group was going to hang out or eat downtown. I didn't have a light, so I needed to head back to the trail head. It was about five miles, and I rode between 20 and 24 mph most of the way. It felt pretty good.

Running in Little Rock

I arrived in Little Rock just in time to make it to Cook's Landing to run with the Little Rock Road Running Club. The plan was to do speed work with them along the River Trail in North Little Rock. I guess the web site wasn't up to date because there was no group to run with. There was a nice woman, Chris, who invited me to run with her. And there was a guy who was going to do long intervals - mile and a half or two mile repeats at 5 minute per mile pace. I do remember being able to run a mile in 5 minutes, but that was only one mile, and that was over thirty years ago. So, I opted to run with Chris. As we headed off, she said the guy is the top local marathoner and that he wins almost every race that he enters. Our first mile was just under 9 minute pace, then we ran a fast mile in 7:40, then we slowed, and a half mile later Chris turned back because she was only running 5 miles. I went on alternating miles at a slow and fast pace. My faster miles were a little over 8 minute pace. It was pretty hard to keep up the pace because it was hot, and I was starting to feel overheated. But then I ran across a water fountain. I totally doused myself, and then responded with my final fast mile in 6:48. At that point my lower back was starting to tighten up, so I walked/jogged the remainder. I covered a total of about eight miles.

Dinner was a grand slam breakfast at Denny's - pancakes, hashed browns, bacon, sausage, and orange juice.

I missed meeting with the RunnersWorld Tulsa group. I saw their blog, and it looks like they had a great turnout. I can't wait to get back and start training with them.

Monday Update

I made it back from Oklahoma City on Thursday in time to do four miles with the RunnersWorld group. I actually made it back after they had left on the run, and I nearly sprinted trying to catch them. Finally caught Kathy about a mile into the run. She was pushing a stroller, so her pace wasn't that fast. Did quite a bit of walking during the run after I caught up. On my running log, I classified the run as a fartlek.

I didn't run at all on Friday through Sunday. Friday I helped my oldest daughter, Melissa, move into an apartment. I slept late on Saturday, then cut the grass and went to a graduation and a wedding. Sunday I didn't do much of anything except go to church in the morning. Robert Provost of Slavic Gospel Association was the speaker at church, and he was telling about how the doors are beginning to close to Russia. The government, together with the Russian Orthodox Church, is doing all it can to close down Protestant churches, schools, orphanages, etc. That's too bad. Just a few years ago I went to Volgodonsk and taught in a Bible Institute there, and it seemed like there was quite a bit of religious freedom.

The good news from the weekend is how Paula and Jennifer did in their half marathons. I looked at the race results from the Aquarium Run, and it looks like they both met their goals. Way to go Paula and Jennifer!!! Paula even finished in the medals, getting second in her age group!

I ran for a little over an hour on Turkey Mountain today and felt pretty good except when my shoelace got caught in a branch, and I stumbled. And then as I was trying to catch myself, I felt sort of a twinge in my back, which repeated itself (the twinge, not the shoelace getting caught) several times during the run. Perhaps my back was still a little tired from moving Melissa on Saturday. I'm sure it's not a bad injury. It may keep me from doing my speed work tomorrow, though. I'll just have to see how it feels.

Tomorrow I will be going to Little Rock. If my schedule allows, I plan on doing speed work with the Little Rock Road Running Club tomorrow evening, riding a bike with the Little Rock Bicycle Club on Wednesday evening, and running with the running club (but probably a different group) on Thursday morning. I'm not sure what next weekend looks like, but I may do a 5k, either on Saturday or Monday.

Another Bike Ride

I got off work at 5:15, drove to the hotel, made a quick change, and arrived at the east side of Lake Overholser by about 5:50. It turns out that the Oklahoma Bicycle Society ride does start from the west side, but I met another group of riders, Team Bike Buddies. The group consisted of Mike and Talesa Flennigan, Eric, David, Sam, Gretchen, and a few others whose names I don't remember. I took off with the slower group, and after a couple of miles the faster group passed us. I decided to catch the fast group and stay with them, and it was a pretty good ride. It was mostly flat, but it was pretty windy. My bike computer says the distance was 29.2 miles, avg speed was 17.1 mph, and max speed was 29.8 mph. I felt good most of the way, but my quads were sort of burning in the last mile as I slightly lagged behind the lead riders. Also, my butt bones hurt. I will have to take a few days break from riding.

After the ride a bunch of the group went to Braum's at 23rd and Rockwell. I had a 1/3 lb burger, fries, and a large chocolate malt. Mmmmm!!! It was a great way to finish an enjoyable evening.

Bicycling

Yesterday I ran a little over 5 miles at a little over an 8 minute pace. I felt pretty good, but still had some tightness in my left hamstring.

Today I am in Oklahoma City. I brought my bike, and after work I went to Lake Overholser and rode a couple of times around the lake plus a bit extra. I saw a number of cyclists doing a time trial. They were members of the Triathlon Club of Oklahoma City . I talked to a few of them at the end of my ride. Nice group of people. My total was 18.3 miles at an average speed of 17.2 mph, and a top speed of 28.7 mph. It was a flat course, but very windy. I didn't push too hard, and I felt pretty good. Not bad for the first ride of the year.

If I get off work early enough tomorrow, I am going to try and do the Wednesday night ride here with the cycling club. Not sure where to meet, though. The website says to meet on the west side of the lake. The triathletes said they thought the Wednesday rides started from the east side of the lake. The contact phone numbers from the website didn't work, so I will just show up on the east side and hope for the best. Worst case is I will ride by myself, like today.

An Easy Saturday

I was the first one at 68th & Riverside, having arrived at about ten minutes to seven. As I was waiting, I sat down and saw the clover in bloom, so I started making a necklace out of the clover. Right at seven Paula showed up, and I gave her the necklace, obviously showing my delight in seeing her out there again. Then Michael, Rachel, and Jennifer showed up. After a few minutes, when it seemed nobody else was going to show up, we started our warm up walk.

I think a bunch of people didn't show because they are running in the Full Moon 5k Run tonight. I received an email from Kathy that she went to the 5k in Bristow this morning.

Charlie Willsey passed us as we were about finished with our walking. He stopped and said he was doing the 10 mile loop on the east and west banks of the river, and he invited us to join him. Jennifer and Rachel had gone on ahead to the north, and Charlie was headed south, so I sent Charlie and the others on ahead, saying I would catch up with them. I was going to tell Rachel and Jennifer what we were doing, but Rachel had already taken off, and Jennifer had nobody to run with. So, Jennifer and I ran together. We decided to go ahead and do the ten mile loop also, but at a much slower pace than Charlie and company.

It was the first time I had run on the west side of the river between 71st and the pedestrian bridge, and I thought it was an interesting route. Jennifer and I maintained about a 12 minute pace or so, which felt pretty good to me. I'm sort of nursing a sore hamstring, and the slower pace is good. Jennifer is going to do the Aquarium 1/2 marathon next weekend, and she said she was going to try to do a 13 minute pace, which I think she will have no trouble doing.

After we crossed back over the river on the pedestrian bridge to the east bank, we stopped at the restrooms, and guess what I found? The necklace I had made and given to Paula. So I wore the clover necklace the rest of the run. Sorry, Paula, for abandoning you, but I didn't want Jennifer to have to run alone. We finished our run right at 9:30, which barely gave Jennifer time to get to her ten o'clock meeting. No time to shower for Jennifer. I offered the clover necklace, saying perhaps it would mask the smell somewhat.

I found out a couple of things about Jennifer on our run. She is a graphics designer and a praise and worship leader at a church on the north side of town.

It was a very enjoyable morning of running, and I look forward to running again with my friends very soon.

Just Another Blog Entry

The Grim Reaper chastised me for not updating my blog enough, so here goes:

Okay, for my running this week, here is what I have done so far:
Monday at noon I did a 4.9 mile tempo run averaging about 8 minute pace. Route was from 3rd & Boulder, south on Boulder to Riverside, Riverside trail to pedestrian bridge, and back along Midland Valley Trail.

Tuesday at noon I did 3.9 miles at an 8:13 pace. Route was south on Cincinnati to about 25th or 26th Street & back along Midland Valley Trail.

Tuesday evening I ran with the RunnersWorld group and had a great time. I started running with Roy, who is new to the group. Roy has run a 3:04 marathon, but that was like 20 years ago. He is just now getting back into running, hoping to lose some weight and get in better shape. Joye also started out with me and Roy. It has been good to see her out running again. We had a lot of good runs together when she was training for the Route 66 Marathon. After a while I pulled ahead and ran with Michael for a ways. Then at 41st we started to head back, but then we ran into Jennifer, so we turned around and ran with her. We finished the last three miles at about an 11 minute pace, which felt good to me, cuz I was sort of tired from the noon runs on Monday and Tuesday. Anyway, I really enjoyed the run with Jennifer and Michael. Jennifer is going to do the Aquarium Run 1/2 marathon in a couple of weeks, and she is hoping to do something like a 12 minute pace or perhaps a bit better. I don't think she'll have any problem. Go Jennifer, Go!!! Total distance Tuesday evening was 6 miles or so. Oh, and then we had the privilege of changing Jennifer's flat tire. For pictures, see the RunnersWorld blog.

Wednesday I was going to run at lunch, but it was rainy so I stayed in and worked some on my Sunday school lesson. We are beginning a series on our doctrinal statement from our constitution and bylaws, and I am going to lead off the series with a few weeks overview of dispensational theology. Wednesday evening Marilyn and I went to our last session of a marriage enrichment class at our church. It has been a very good class. The best part were the love and respect videos. After church I again had a privilege of changing a flat tire, this time it was the car my daughter was driving. I put on the spare, drove to Walmart, got a plug kit, repaired the tire, changed the tire again, and was back home by 10:30.

Thursday at noon I did 5.4 miles at a pretty relaxed pace, averaging 8:44 per mile. Route was south from downtown along the Midland Valley Trail, across to the west bank, north to 21st, across the river on the 21st street bridge and north on Boulder to 3rd street.

Thursday evening I went 6 miles. The first mile was a slow pace, then I ran a mile with the grim reaper at an 8 minute pace. He turned around at that point, and I was on my own. Next mile was about 7:30, then 8:00, then a half mile in 4:10, and at that point my left hamstring was beginning to feel tight, so I walked/jogged the last mile and a half. I passed Phillip, and he asked me if I had been doing any pull ups lately, so I felt obligated when I passed the pull up bars. I did 7, which is pretty good for me. The highlight of the run was when I ran into Cindy, Carmie, and Teresa near the pedestrian bridge. Cindy said to me, "you look hot!" I had no idea she felt that way toward me. Then she corrected herself. "I mean you look sweaty!"

My plan for Saturday is to run 10 or 12 at an easy pace. If Jennifer is there, I may run with her to keep her company.

My total for the week after Saturday will be 36-38 miles.

Hope Rains

As I have written previously, I was a little down after last week's marathon, partly from exhaustion, but I think mostly because I didn't meet my time goal. It was really weird last week because after the race I had no desire to cheer on my teammates as I usually look forward to do. Instead I just sat down on the sidewalk, not caring how anybody else did.

This week I went out of town on Tuesday and wasn't able to run until Wednesday morning, when I went for a run at the nature center in Springfield, Missouri. I'm not sure what the pace was, but I ran pretty easily most of the way for fifty minutes. I'm guessing I ran a little over 5 miles, mostly on hilly dirt, rock, and wood chip trails. It was a beautiful morning, and even though my legs were still a little sore, with some tightness in the hamstrings, I had a great time.

Thursday I ran three easy miles at noon, from downtown Tulsa to Veteran's Park and back. At the park I also did several sets of push ups and pull ups on the soccer goal. Thursday evening I met with the group at RunnersWorld and ended up running four easy miles with Brian and Alex, at about a nine and a half minute pace.

Also on Thursday, Kathy suggested running the Hope Rains 5k Trail Race. I wasn't sure I wanted to because my legs were still a little tired from the marathon, but I signed up on Friday, and I'm glad I did. I had decided to just sort of jog the race, but there's something about "on your mark, get set.." that gets the adrenaline going. I ran hard and felt good the whole race, finishing in a respectable 24:11. But the time doesn't matter. I was really out just to have fun, which I definitely did. After I finished, I really enjoyed cheering all my friends and teammates to the finish.

I was delighted to see some of the runners I haven't seen in a while. I'm thinking, in particular, Joye, who happened to finish 3rd in her age group. It was also great to see Cindy and Kathy win their age groups. I guess honorable mention should go to Teresa, Ken, and me for finishing 4th in our age groups. I thoroughly enjoyed the morning, and if they do the race again next year, I'm in.

By the way, Ken has a good race report with pictures.