The True Grit

"The only thing that makes a sandwich better than adding avocado is bacon"
-K. Thomas McCool

While this is obviously not universally applicable to all beings, especially us vegans, though I'm sure Mr. McCool would argue different, I took his creed to heart, and this morning found myself tinkering around in the kitchen in an attempt to vegan-ize his carnivorous claim. The dish I came up with is what you see below. Consisting of curry potatoes, scrambled tofu (with knock-your-wooden-teeth-out-Mr.-Washington* fresh grated ginger), avocado, & veggie bacon. Of course, topped with fresh chopped I-can-not-tell-a-lie cherry (tree) tomatoes.

The True Grit: Anything + Avocado & (veggie) Bacon

*because if we know anything about US history, it's that George Washington's most memorable accomplishments in life were that he had wooden teeth and chased Moby-Dick; why else would they put him on the dollar bill and the quarter?

Snowshoe BBQ

I woke up feeling defeated before the day even had a chance to have at me. Not because of any injuries mind you, it's just that I looked at my Higdon schedule and saw 7 miles for the day, then I shifted my gaze out the window and saw far too much snow to get this task comfortably done. My next thought was to bother my aunt again by using her treadmill, but looking back at the Higdon schedule, it still said 7 miles for the day, and I don't know about you folks, but anything beyond 5 miles running in one place feels like you are mentally being thrown into the belly of an unforgiving Sarlacc pit, where you will learn a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years. It was in this moment, my eyes drifted out the window once again, pondering, for no explicit reason, what Hart Crane wrote about the Brooklyn Bridge, when I saw a runner in the distance. "Good gawd man!" I exclaimed, hence the exclamation point, tugging on the cord to draw the venetian blinds even higher, exposing my room further to the blinding brilliance of sunlight reflecting off of the snowy lawn below. "If he's running, I can run!" I watched him bobbing into view like a cryptozoologist studying an elusive half man-cheetah hybrid that stalks its prey on the Serengeti plains. This beast seemed to move effortlessly despite the mounds of snow that surrounded his path. Excitement coursed through my veins, for today, there would be no defeat!

I threw on a few key layers to combat the winter weather, and for the first time ever stuffed an ipod nano in my pocket and away from the window I flew like a flash, without tearing open the shutters or throwing open the sash. I made my way out to the street, and things seemed OK. The sidewalk I could see was spotted with snow and ice patches, but it wasn't enough to dissuade me. I hit shuffle and was off. As soon as I turned the corner I immediately ran into my first stretch of non-shoveled walkway. A quick glance back for traffic and a spry sidelong bunny hop put me in the wet, but snow free, street. This maneuver would be repeated throughout the run, because apparently not everyone in my neighborhood is a good samaritan when it comes to snow removal. I ran a 3 mile loop, at first, with the idea of keeping close to home incase I slipped on an ice patch and had to drag myself back to my doorstep (technically counting that, if it were to happen, as cross training). The next loop was 3 miles too, but in a different direction, and it worked out even better, leaving me cursing under my frigid breath about how I should have chosen this way first. I ended the 7 miles after two 3 mile loops with a 1 mile "victory" lap to round out the distance. Now the downside to all this was my own misjudgment in the shoes I chose to wear, which were an older pair that had maybe already seen too many miles for their own good. I just didn't want to introduce my new ones to the harsh elements just yet, leaving me with a pain in my foot after a 7 mile obstacle course of snow mounds and ice patches. It's not anything readily debilitating, but I am concerned over how I'll pull off a 15 mile run on Saturday if most of this winter wonderland hasn't been melted away. We'll see how things go, I'm sure it will work out...

During the run I had the nano on shuffle, and it was really knocking it out of the park with what it was randomly selecting for my listening pleasure. I realize having less GB means having a higher rate of likable albums for shuffle to snatch songs from, but the songs were really phenomenal. Uncanny, really, in some of the relevance in tempo as well as lyrical content; almost as if the machine KNEW what I was doing at that exact moment and wanted me to be aware of it. I've been pretty much an unadorned runner up until this point, relying mostly on the sounds of nature to pass the time, but now that the miles are getting longer in the tooth, having the soothing sounds of musical whimsy to join me in the endeavor is somewhat comforting. Simply put: I've been won over. Now to get crackin' on that marathon playlist...

Snowpocalypse Now! 2010.

Marathon training just got a little more complicated...

A Very Vegan Christmas

I knew it is was going to happen before it even began to not happen; it was risky to push, by saphire, every precious thing I had to do for the day into one morning and have great expectations for everything to come out on top of the cloud atlas, next to the man in the high castle, but I'm a risk taker, sometimes, though much more of a procrastinator, which usually equates to being risky, though I suppose far less noble if you compare the intent, and things turned out just as I had suspected: less than zero (in the running department at least). Today was supposed to be a 10 mile taper run, but falling on a holiday, "why it's Christmas day, sir", there just wasn't a wrinkle in time to spare in spending the hour and a half (to nearly 2 hours, depending on how every who down in whoville was doing) on an odyssey  away from the animal farm  that the run would require. It was somewhat of a catch-22 day, but I spent the morning instead of exercising to become the marathon man, preparing a moveable feast of tofurkey, with the last minute improvised addition of sweet potato wedges and asparagus to round out the veggie base. I immediately followed up with a special recipe I've perfected for vegan apple pie. It all turned out rather good, and though only myself and my aunt dug into the tofurkey, the entire family enjoyed the apple pie. So, things on the food front where somewhat successful. See for yourselves...

 Tofurkey with Sweet Potato Wedges & Asparagus 

That's Right! Sweet-Sweet Vegan Apple Pie

Now I feel terrible for missing out on my LSD run for the week, and though I had planned to take my 10 mile electric kool-aide acid test, like Jack Kerouac, on the road tomorrow, instead, all the forecasts are calling for heavy snow falling on cedars. Tender is the night, so even if the sun also rises, and I grab a breakfast of champions, I might not have the option. Though, I am slightly excited for the potential of going into the wild, where the wild things are, and sledding as an alternative to my normal cross training routine. We'll just have to wait & see what is the what come morning. So this is what I talk about when I talk about running, maybe white christmas is really a white boxing day this year...but who knows, in the snow, you get so alone at times that it just makes sense. 


Happy Christmas All! 

One Whacky Week

So week 9 is technically a tapper week, however, we're far enough along in training that 10 miles constitutes a shorter distance. This is also the first week that every day was a different distance (3-7-4-10), losing some of the much treasured consistency from the 3 milers that used to serve as the whole grain bread in the Wednesday hard run special sandwich.

This past weekend was the farthest I had ever run: 13.1 miles. I bumped up the run to .1 just to round out the exact half marathon measurement. I attacked the distance in four easily digestible 3 mile loops, with the victory lap of 1.1 miles around the neighborhood. I again kept a cache of water and gatorade in my makeshift water station, and made out quite alright in the process. To say it was chilly would be an understatement, but weather wise, it wasn't all that terrible. I dressed far more appropriately for this jaunt than I had done earlier in the week, and indeed got myself a fine pair of running tights for the occasion.

Onto the running...

Rhythm Method: Neutral Milk Hotel "Holland, 1945"

The saddest thing about reading any description about Neutral Milk Hotel is that it inevitably starts with line "Neutral Milk Hotel was...", putting this band in the past tense, which yokes my heart with rusty tin buckets filled with lead-laden tears of sorrow for not having them around anymore. Though, back in 2008, Jeff Mangum did make appearances with the Elephant 6 Orchestra tour, so who knows what possibilities the future may yet hold?

This song, Holland, 1945, is a handwritten lovelorn letter on rolled up parchment with fresh dipped fountain pen ink smeared on the hand reaching back in time to leave a trail of white roses around the unfortunate struggles and lost life of Anne Frank and her family off of the album In an Aeroplane Over the Sea, quite possibly a near perfect album, if there ever was one, which there is, and it's called London Calling. Resting somewhere between the fuzzy line of punk and folk roots, this is certainly one of the more raucous songs from said album. Conveniently, this video includes the lyrics, which are certainly worth the time to puzzle through while running, if you so desire.

Hey Hey Kids!

I apologize upfront for my lack of participation in the posts this week. FINALS! have taken over my life at the moment. Though, I have kept up on the Higdon running schedule.

Yesterday was a 6 miler, smack-dab in the middle of week 8, and it was colder than Hoth outside. I layered up, almost to an ignorantly overcautious amount, and trotted out the door into 23°F (-5°C) temperature like a true champion steed ready to take down the distance with gusto. At first I was pleased as Hawaiian Punch with my choice in clothing, since the small exposed fleshy oval of my hooded face was bitter about the wicked wind chill tearing up eyes and blushing my cheeks. But that was soon to change...

My trotting soon turned to plodding as the muscles in my legs were just immediately exhausted. I'm not exactly sure why that happened. The previous day's 3 miler wasn't anything like interstellar overdrive (on the treadmill the 3 mile breakdown from Tuesday was as follows: 1) 9:46 2) 7:59 3) 7:38, with a .5 mile walk at the end), so I couldn't have worn myself out from that. And since I waited to run in the afternoon, secretly hoping the sun would help warm up the day, as it's known to do from time to time, I had somewhat of a substantial brunch kicking around in the fuel tank from hours before. Go Banana!

So my pace felt stilted, and I wondered if it was the constriction of the amount of layers I had draped over my person to avoid the torturous tundra outside. Because I've always taken to heart what the Wu-Tang Clan once said, "protect ya neck kid", the only part of me without excessive wardrobe were my feet, and my toes were forming into effin ice cubes inside the tray of my Nike Voremos. But for the astute long distance runners out there, you may take one look at that 6 mile distance, and realize, I was dressed for success, the wrong way.

The arctic conditions soon became a sweat factory exporting the products fastened together by the tiny fingers of a migrant population of my smothered glands into the multi-layered nations of my clothing. The gloves were the first to go, then the cap, heat was just pouring out my sleeves like an active volcano waiting to erupt. I thought about ditching a layer or two in a bush along the way, then circling back for it on Schwinny Cooper after the run, but I didn't want to face the possible repercussions of being caught in a bush taking my clothes off; no matter how I explain it, I just don't think they'd buy it, though "For real, I have a running blog" crossed my mind as a plausible defense. So I sweated out the remainder of the run, vowing next time, I'd come less prepared.

The run was slow because, to say I was fatigued seems like an understatement, I felt really bogged down for the entire 6 mile course; my leg muscles just wouldn't put out the effort that my mind wanted from them. My best guess for average mile time is about just under a 10 min. pace, because an hour had passed on the microwave clock from the time I left the apartment to the time I got back. The most extreme hills came towards the end, when I was really coasting on fumes, so that did nothing to bolster my confidence about finishing the distance, though I did in the end without stopping.

The cold air made it hard to breath, as if I was drowning in a block of ice, and indeed, later at night I felt the itch in the back of my throat, whose discomfort has now turned into a full blown sore throat the morning after. I've been combating this with green tea, lots of it, hoping for a quick comfortable recovery. Only time will tell. Though, today's 3 mile run will certainly be accomplished on a treadmill in the relative warmth of my Aunt's basement.

Broke the 8:00/mile seal

Tokyo, Week 8, Day 3; 6 miles, 7:50/mile.

Last night I went running around 11:30 or so, so I got back at like midnight. This morning, I had time to run in the morning and, knowing I'd likely have work at night, I went out for today's 6-miler less than 9 hours after yesterday's run. Given the short recovery time and the three additional miles, I was aiming to match my 8:12/mile pace from last night.

I went out at my typical "fast Wednesday" standard; I ran fast enough so that I could not speak comfortably. I overall felt pretty good throughout the run. Besides the required stops (i.e., traffic lights at big streets), I walked for about 10 seconds at the half-way point, and that was it (although, to be fair, I was kind of hoping for red lights during the last half of the workout). The third quarter of the run was, as is typical, the toughest, and I felt like I was going very slow. I wouldn't have been surprised with a 9:00/mile pace, but I'm pretty sure I was going faster than that, given my ultimate average pace.

Given how I felt in the third quarter of the run, I wouldn't have been surprised with not having met my goal of at least matching yesterday's pace of 8:12/mile, so I was glad to see a final pace of 7:50/mile.

Hoping for an easy pace below 8:00/mile

Tokyo, Week 8, Day 2; 3 miles, 8:12/mile.

A morning run was a no-go today, but I managed to sneak in a run at night while working from home at around 11 p.m.

I wasn't feeling too bad (even though cross training on Sunday got dumped due to work) and it was a comfortable 55ºF (13ºC) outside with none of the rain that we've had over the past few days. When I looked up what my run should be, I was a little disappointed that it was only 3 miles; because I haven't run for a while on a Tuesday, I thought the jump up to 4 might have already occurred, but I'm still at three, which feels like nothing at this point. In any case, I was in good spirits for a run.

Going out along one of my normal routes, I thought I was feeling Saturday's run during the first half mile or so, with my body kind of creaking along. When I got to close to finishing my first half mile, I checked the distance on my iPod (just to make sure it wasn't all messed up like on Saturday), and it wasn't.

However, it also told me that my pace was only 9:07/mile. Thinking about that now, on that course I hit the half mile point while going up a pretty steep hill, so the pace probably wasn't unreasonable, but my reaction during the run was, "Why am I going so damn slow?!", so I made it a point to pick up the pace, while keeping it at a pace at which I could talk.

At the end of the run, I expected to average out to somewhere around 8:30 or 8:40 per mile, so I was a little shocked when my average pace came out to 8:12/mile. In case you haven't noticed a pattern yet, I seem to run at a pace that's consistently faster than the pace I think I'm running at.

So I wonder what the chances are of me getting all my runs below 8:00/mile. The iPod clocked me at a 6:59/mile pace at the mile marker, but to be fair that was while going down a hill. Still, 8:12/mile isn't all that far from getting me below 8:00/mile, and I've got still got almost 11 weeks of training left to give it a go.

Why work kills my running time

This is pretty much why I always find it so hard to run during the work week.

Tempting injury, but getting through the run

Tokyo, Week 6, Day 7; A hour or so on a bike.
Tokyo, Week 7, Day 6; ~13 miles, ~9:00/mile.

While Joe continues his battle with a variety of injuries, I continue my battle with not having time to run. This week work totally pwned my running time. I was barely able to scrape up 2 or 3 hours of sleep each night, much less find the time to get out for a run. The end result was that I didn't run at all during the work week.

Last night was another late night because of work, so I didn't get to bed until like 6 a.m. Luckily, I had basically cleared off my work plate and could finally catch up on sleep. When I woke up at 3:30 p.m., feeling refreshed, it was time to go out for a run.

At the outset of the run, it didn't look like things we going to be pretty.

• I hadn't done any sort of meaningful exercise since last Sunday, when I did a nice long bike ride.
• The 12-mile (19.3-kilometer) run today was to be the longest run yet.
• My route today (to and back from Ueno Park) was a new one, so there was a risk of messing things up.
• I hadn't eaten anything since like 2 a.m. the night before, more than 12 hours before I left the gate.
• I hadn't drank anything since the same time.

In fact, the only thing I really had going for me was that the weather was nice; it was about 65ºF (18ºC) outside and sunny. (Yes, on December 11, that's how hot it was.)

And then there were all the things that went wrong during the run…

• Unsurprisingly, I got totally lost. This extended my total route by something like 4 miles (two out and two back) and, in addition to needing to stop regularly to cross streets as usual, I had to stop constantly to consult with maps and with police officers in kobans.
• My Nike+ iPod set-up decided to go totally whack on me. For the first chunk of my run, it clocked me running at about 20 minutes per mile (12.4 minutes per kilometer), which was undoubtedly more than twice as slow as I was actually running. It seemed to have fixed itself after that, with current-pace checks putting it at 8-something or 9-something per mile, but then it did this annoying thing where, when I pressed the button to pause and then restart the workout, it ended my workout. It did that twice, breaking my workout into three segments. However, only two of the segments appear to have been recorded; the first, including that dirt-slow incorrect pace, and a short distance towards the very end.
• I barely managed to keep a side stitch at bay for much of the latter half of the run.
• I became ravenously thirsty and could do nothing but think of water towards the end of the run.
• I fought off some weird tightness in a groin tendon that kept me from running for the last few miles (after I had already ran the 12 I set out to do).

Sure enough, it wasn't pretty.

A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Far Away...

It's been awhile, and a number of things have contributed to that, but none more so than a computer failure at the start of finals week...Now that I have the computer back I should be catching up on the finals that still remain, but I thought a quick recap post was necessary since tomorrow is somewhat significant: Week 7's 12 mile LSD run!

Week 6 was going great for days 2, 3, & 4, and day 5, the rest day, was going well, right up until the point a leg cramp nailed my left calf as I was sitting there, per Higdon's instructions, resting. I had just watched a movie and was sitting reclined in a chair when leviathan arose from the depths of torpid sea creating a maelstrom of malevolence in his wakeful wake. He sunk his demon teeth into my calf muscle and tried with all the might in his monstrous jowls to separate the muscle from around my bones. This was a debilitating pain that had me nearly teary eyed (or was it the movie I had been watching?) for about a minute or two there was nothing I could do but ride out the brutal contraction, and silently pray for the beast to return from whence it came. Like George Harrison once said, all things must pass, and this did, but the ripples left by leviathan had me limping to the kitchen to grab a banana and as much water as I could gulp down my gullet. Up until this moment I thought I had been being cautious enough with my nutrient intake, so when I eventually had computer access I checked the main reasons Mr. Charley Horse stops by unannounced and crashes the party.

1) muscle fatigue 2) heavy exercise 3) dehydration 4) electrolyte imbalance

Well heck, 1 & 2 are basically twins, and 3 & 4 are cousins, once removed. I made the decision to heed the warnings of my Aunt and not to run the 7 mile tapper LSD the following day. I could barely walk for the rest of the weekend, so Sunday's cross training was limited to a brief half hour stroll through the cold dark streets of Oreland at night while listening to Thee Oh Sees. To make all of this a little bit worse, my foot pain has yet to relinquish its stake in my right foot. This, I have found through my amateur deductions, could be one of three culprits as well: 1) plantar fasciitis 2) heel spurs 3) stress fracture. Each one is progressively worse than the last. I guess we'll see what happens after this weekend's 12 mile LSD. Let's hope for the best.


week 7, other than the foot pain, has been relatively uneventful. I've been eating a banana daily, drinking gatorade and coconut water (great source of natural electrolytes), as well as being conscious of taking in more water as I run, something I've pretty much ignored by and large in training thus far, because it's kind of a hassle. Treadmill runs make that feat a whole hell of a lot easier, but tomorrow's 12 miler is formed into a perfect 4 mile loop around my neighborhood. I've tried to avoid as many hills as possible, though there's still one unavoidable large one, and I'll be stashing water on the front seat of my car for easy access. The cold cold wind is surely not going to make this a fun day, but it must be done. I had to skip Thursday's 3 miler, but since I was in NYC for the day and walking so much, I can at least count it as a cross training session. Well, there was also the sprinting for the Bolt bus home, that we made with barely 5 minutes to spare, that could count towards speed work. Here I will admit that I was almost put to shame by a non-runner, who was driven by the pure fear sparked adrenaline of being stuck at night in the freezing cold of Manhattan and having to seek shelter in Central Park's Belvedere Castle, as she almost dusted me down west 33rd street. In practicality, I think I was just laughing to hard to keep a good pace. (SIDE NOTE: If ever in NYC, I highly recommend Teany's and the Candle Cafe to meet and exceed all your vegan needs. At the Candle Cafe, the decadent chocolate cake is pretty much the awesomest thing you will ever put in your mouth.)

Anyway, back to finals. I'll try to check in with you kids after the 12 miler tomorrow. Be well...

Work dominates again, but pace keeps going down

Tokyo, Week 5, Day 7; 30-minute walk.
Tokyo, Week 6, Day 2; 3 miles, 8:38/mile.
Tokyo, Week 6, Day 6; 7 miles, 8:18/mile.

Last week, after work took a bite out of my running time, I ended up doing my running and cross training only on Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday. This week, after work took a bite out of my running time, I ended up doing my running and cross training only on Tuesday, Saturday and (if all goes as planned) Sunday. This upcoming week, I'm hoping to break out of the pattern and get a full week of runs in, but I make no promises.

I ended last week with a 30-minute walk. I had been planning a nice long bike ride, but I got lazy so I decided I'd just do a walk on the cross training day. Once again, I brought my eldest daughter along for the trip (on her bike), but I also thought I'd bring my youngest along in her stroller. That worked well until, about 10 minutes out, she didn't like the headwind blowing in her face and started crying. My biking daughter at that point was way ahead of us, so I couldn't just turn around, but had to keep going with a crying baby through Shirokanedai until I could catch up to the biker. The baby didn't stop crying until we got home, but that didn't prevent the cross training from working its magic; I was much less sore after it than before.

The week kicked off on a typical day off, and then on Tuesday I went out for an easy three miles. The Wednesday and Thursday runs got displaced (and the back-up day of Friday was not available), so that brings me to today.

Today I didn't manage to get in a run until just around the time it was getting dark. I went out at a pace that felt comfortable, but I think there were a few things that were making me push things a bit. The first was that, because I hadn't run for a few days, I felt like I needed to get in a better run than I would have otherwise. The second was impatience; I saw my wife cooking up some pakora as I was leaving, and it looked good so I wanted to get back to eat that. (That's the joy of training based on distance rather than time; run faster and you're done sooner.) And the third was that I didn't want to break the sub-9:00/mile seal that I put on my easy runs a few weeks back.

The result was 8:18/mile, and I can't say I felt like I was really pushing it during the run, or that I'm tired afterwards. It does seem kind of odd to me though that I'm running less but my pace continues to drop.