24 posts tagged “5ks”
...is what Vox and I have in common! *
Haven and I ran our fourth Bailey's Doggie Dash 5K a couple weekends ago, finishing with our slowest time ever. Don't worry, we had a lot of fun - the slowness was expected since I've done barely any running lately. The hamstring is feeling much better - and caused no problems at the Doggie Dash - so I've been limiting my running frequency to "just enough to keep me sane" levels.
The race report is over on my other blog. Long ago I wrote about wanting to combine my article-type posts onto one blog rather than a few, which I've done there on Blogger but I've been rather lazy about getting the archives updated. I'm continuing to use Vox as my "personal" blog (not that my other one is "professional" by any means) for fun stories, opinions, family stuff, etc.
The photo above is one of my favorites from this year's Doggie Dash but which I didn't include on the other blog. It seems to have a more calm, reflective tone to it compared to the other shots of Haven and I during the race. Of course if you like great photos of dogs and fall colors, check out Amanda's Flickr album of the Doggie Dash.
* Seriously, is it just me or has Vox been occasionally going retro - as in dial-up speed - in the past few weeks?
I can hardly believe that I didn't run at all in December - the first time I've missed an entire month since I started running January 1st, 2004. It's frustrating but hopefully this layoff will fix my hamstring and prevent a recurrence. If you find long lists of statistics to be boring, you can read my brief 2007 running summary. While these stats are posted on Why Run? I've also included them here - the breakdown of my running for 2007, by the numbers:
1018.5 total miles
207 runs
156 hours
4.92 miles average per run
13 races
7 5K road
2 5M trail
1 5K trail with Haven
1 4M road with Haven and Beacon
1 10K road
1 26.2M trail marathon
788.9 miles on the roads
229.6 miles on the trails
193.2 pounds average weight
56 bpm typical resting heart rate
181.7 miles running with Haven
85.3 miles running with Beacon
53.0 of the above miles running with Haven and Beacon together
4.3 miles running with foster dogs
218.4 miles running with dogs
51 runs with Haven
24 runs with Beacon
14 of the above runs were with Haven and Beacon together
2 runs with foster dogs, Raven and Reese
63 total runs with at least one dog
30% of all runs were with a dog
Congratulations if you've scrolled down this far and actually enjoyed reading the stats. The dogs will appreciate your effort since I'm now going to share their own personal numbers, which also include hikes and other walks that I didn't include in my running tally. Note that "swimming" means time spent playing fetch in water or accompanying Amanda and I while we waded in the river.
Haven
327.7 miles total
107.7 miles on leash
220.0 miles off leash
92 outings
65 hours total
9.9 hours swimming
Beacon
226.2 miles total
65.6 miles on leash
160.7 miles off leash
74 outings
52 hours total
15.8 hours swimming
Foster Dogs
7 of our 17 foster dogs went running - Amber, Raven, Honey, Reese, Betty, Annie, Teddy
51.3 miles total
18.8 miles on leash
32.5 miles off leash
16 outings
14 hours total
no significant swimming
If you're wondering why Haven racked up 100 more miles than Beacon, there are two main reasons:
1) Beacon likes running, Haven LOVES running. However, Beacon makes up for it with almost 6 more hours of swimming because while Haven likes fetch, Beacon LOVES fetch.
2) Beacon's pads become sore rather easily and there are several occasions where Haven is taken for a run in place of Beacon because his paws are still recovering. We think the cause is a combination of Beacon's naturally thin pads and his somewhat stiff-legged gait; in comparison Haven is a very smooth and easy runner.
Yes, I love running with dogs!
Trail runner Paul Charteris wrote a meme-type blog entry (discovered via Scott Dunlap) to recap 2007. I'll play along; however since I'm simply a "runner" and not a die-hard "trail runner" I'm going to be liberal in my interpretation of the term "trails".
1. Most memorable moment on the trails…
When Haven and Beacon encountered a fawn! They chased it to a standoff; Beacon got head-butted and ran away while Haven tried to make friends with Bambi.
2. Best new trail I discovered in 2007…
Sleeping Bear Dunes bluff - perhaps the highest torture:distance ratio of any trail!
3. My best performance of the year was…
...thanks to Haven pulling me at the Doggie Dash. However, "fastest" does not equal "best" since I allowed Haven to do too much work in the second mile, causing her to fade badly in the last mile while I still had some energy. Not only was that unfair to her, it also cost us a shot at a sub-20 time. My best strategic performance was at the Harvest Hustle when I launched my "kick" with a half mile to go, risking total blowup to set a 5K PR.
4. I do not know how I previously survived without…
A canicross-style leash setup that includes a bungee cord:
5. The person I would most like to meet on a trail in 2008...
The meeting would last but a split second as Matt Carpenter zooms past my plodding, gasping self.
6. The race I am most excited/scared about in 2008 is…
The Wild West 100K. Excited because it would be my longest race ever and it takes place in my hometown. Scared because I need to recover from my hamstring injury before I can even start building up a base.
I'd like to tag any runners who feel like answering these six quick questions whether you prefer trails or roads.
I haven't written much lately for a couple reasons: 1) Amanda and I have been busy starting up our new business, and 2) I haven't been running.
The latter is significant because much of my blog is about my running and without that, what do I write about? OK there are plenty of other topics, but also important is that not running can be depressing. It frustrates me to no end that I haven't been able to run - I missed all the good 50-degree weather in early November and now with snow and ice on the ground I can't even ride my bike. I've used the stationary bike at home a few times but that's even worse than a treadmill. I did get in a great long ride in mid November - 35 miles in 2.5 hours, and it was fun the whole way. Since I don't have clips on my pedals it's hard for me to engage my hamstrings, which is good for my injured right one.
I don't think I ever recovered from the Harvest Hustle and Doggie Dash, running 5K PRs on back-to-back weekends. Or rather, I didn't allow myself to recover. I was feeling so strong after those races that my next couple workouts were faster than usual and after the second one my hamstring tightened up afterwards. I took a couple days off and then ran a couple more 5-milers, the last one on Halloween, but it was still feeling tight, so I figured I'd be conservative and rest it for an entire week.
After the week off I ran a couple short runs under 3 miles with a day rest in between, and my hamstring felt no better than before! Ugh. So I took TWELVE days off with no running, although I did get some cycling in. I ran on Thanksgiving day for 3 miles with Haven and my hamstring felt great! No problems. I took the next day off just to be sure, then ran 3 miles with Beacon and as soon as I got home and stopped running, my hamstring was more sore than it's ever been and I was even limping for the rest of the day! What the heck?
Partly I can "blame" Beacon. We ran at what felt like a 9:00 pace but when I mapped it out afterwards I was alarmed to learn that he had pulled me to a 7:30 pace! Still, it felt easy and I was paying close attention to my legs and never felt a twinge of anything until after the run. Now I'm in the middle of another forced layoff and just hoping that my hamstring will actually heal.
Hopefully it is healing. I haven't felt any tightness in about a week and I'm actually considering running on it - very slowly and very briefly - sometime soon. Yet there's some trepidation because the last two times that my leg felt healed it turned out not to be, so maybe I should wait another whole week just to be certain?
I know that healing takes time, but what's so odd to me is that my initial injury never felt anywhere close to serious. Just a little stiffness in the hamstring; in fact I've had that before after some speed workouts. It's never hurt to the point that I couldn't run without pain but I wanted to catch it early before injuries started cascading. This has never felt like an injury that would've required more than a couple days to heal, yet here I am.
The good thing is that Amanda and I have been busy with 2 Feet 4 Paws so most days it's easy to forget that I'm not running that day, but I can feel the effects. It's harder to wake up when I'm "not a runner" and food doesn't taste as good when I haven't been exercising. Time heals all wounds and eventually it will heal this one, but boy is it tough having to wait!
October 13th I ran in the Harvest Hustle 5K, a race in downtown Lowell that goes right past my house! I didn't have any kind of serious plan and apparently that worked - read the race report about my 20:56 PR!
But I wasn't about to call it a season. The very next Saturday, October 20, my dog Haven and I raced in Bailey's Doggie Dash 5K. Haven was every bit as excited as I was; see (and hear) for yourself:
Silly girl! I trained Haven to run in a harness hitched to my belt to help pull me along, and did she ever - we finished 3rd overall in a time of 20:17!! Interesting tidbit about this race was that I met a guy who was inspired to adopt a dog as his running partner after reading about Haven and Beacon on this blog! That made for a doubly satisfying day.
It was fun, but it was frustrating.
Follow the link for the full race report on Why Run?, but suffice it to say I ran a 21:33. I don't know why I can't seem to do any better than mid-21's after my 21:07 in March, and I have to wonder if I'll ever reach 20:08 someday. Even more frustrating was that I missed winning my age group (yes, it was a slow field) by 10 seconds! I wound up 2nd out of 11 in my age group and 25 / 287 overall in the 5K. A few of my co-workers ran the 10-mile edition of the race; below is a photo of Dave fending of some competitors at the finish.
97 degrees was the air this evening when Haven and I went for a run! Due to the heat, and due to my double workout yesterday (4 mile easy run at work, then 2 miles after work at 5K pace), Haven and I took it easy today. I carried a water bottle that was used as much for Haven as it was for me! We also stopped at the river twice and a small lake twice within our 3.5 miles to give Haven a cooling dip in the water each time.
This past week I've been slacking off with the blogging (although I did manage to compose an article about rental dogs yesterday) but I wasn't slacking with the race planning. I signed up for three events recently:
August 11 - The Legend (5 mile trail run)
August 18 - Fallsburg Marathon (26.2 mile trail run)
September 15 - Bridge Run (5K road run)
The Legend is just going to be for fun; I'll run it hard but not all-out race it, and see how it compares to my previous 5 mile trail run in April, the Road Ends Trail Run.
I signed up for the Fallsburg Marathon on a whim, so I have no idea how that's going to turn out. I haven't done any double-digit long runs in quite a while so I'm counting on my base of 750 miles so far this year to carry me through in somewhere between 5 and 6 hours. The reason I'm doing this event is because the course uses the very same North Country Trail sections and nearby roads that I regularly run - the race is in my backyard, so to speak. In fact, I ran the entire paved portion of the course by coincidence when I explored the countryside near home. Plus, the race director is planning to put on a 100K ultra here next year and I want to see how well this guy delivers as an organizer.
It looks like the Bridge Run could be my last attempt at setting a lifelong PR in the 5K. In October I'm doing the Bailey's Doggie Dash 5K but I don't want to do-or-die target a PR in that race since I'll have Haven and/or Beacon with me. The week after that I'm thinking of volunteering for the Grand Rapids Marathon instead of running it, so it'll be November before I get another shot at a fast and flat road 5K... if I need it (fingers crossed).
After running the Michigan Apple Run 5K on Saturday, I've since managed to run each of the next two days without as much difficulty as I'd expect. Hopefully this is a good sign of my fitness.
Sunday Amanda and I spent a couple hours on a section of the North Country Trail near our house pruning back any overhanging tree branches and encroaching prickers. Later that day we were still feeling antsy so we decided to take the dogs to the river. Amanda loaded Beacon into the car and drove to the river to start him retrieving some sticks.
Meanwhile I went the "back way", running 2.5 miles of trails with Haven at a surprisingly fast 8:00 pace. Doing this the day after a 5K was pretty cool, and of course Haven loved it. Now that I've learned that dogs can laugh, I wonder if Haven cracked up when she saw me fall flat on my face? Yep, my foot caught a rock on a slight downhill and I bit the dust. Luckily I didn't even draw blood and ended up with nothing more than dirty knees, elbows, and clothing. In fact the worst effect was that the nozzle of my water bottle was covered in dirt!
We reached the river where I took over stick-throwing duties from Amanda. Beacon continued to dutifully fetch the sticks but Haven spent her river time chasing whirligig beetles on the surface! Sometimes I wonder if she was even chasing minnows as she would dunk her whole head under water! Silly girl.
Today I ran 5 miles during lunch and my co-worker and I did some fire hydrant fartleks that bumped our overall pace up to 8:45 - nothing to crow about although the fact that I could do such a pace after Sunday's trails and Saturday's race has left me feeling pretty happy with myself. That, and the fact that I've "flown" 707 miles this year. Not quite as impressive as the four-engined Boeing 707, but cool nonetheless.
Another weekend, another 5K! This time I took part in the Michigan Apple Run 5K - follow the link for my race report. Once again Amanda was on hand to take a video of my kick at the finish. I'm amazed at how slow I look! Those long legs don't need to take many steps - compare the girl in pink next to me at the beginning of the video and despite her very fast turnover, I easily pull away.
Sunday morning Amanda and I had a scrumptious breakfast at Perkins. While awaiting our food Amanda shot her straw wrapper at me; when her shot found the target she exclaimed "I hit your sole!"
You see, I was wearing the t-shirt from my Heart and Sole 5K in February and her straw wrapper hit my chest right on the word "Sole". By the way, Amanda was wearing her Hard Rock Cafe shirt from Niagara Falls which had lots of animals drawn on the front.
Naturally I retaliated by shooting my straw wrapper at her and I said just a little too loudly: "I hit your beaver!" It was true - my wrapper had landed right on the small drawing of a beaver on her shirt. Unfortunately, my mouth spoke before my mind could react and the dozen or so folks within earshot were giving me funny looks...
