This new year hasn’t started off with much of a bang here on the blog . I’ll get right on that.

How’s the running going>? OK. Not great, but OK. Getting the long runs in has been tough. I’m lazy. I want to sleep in on the weekends, and there’s always so much stuff to do; yard work, baseball evaluations (yes BASEBALL, in JANUARY). So, that’s something to work on.

I did my work on the treadmill yesterday and watched as the sky got brighter and the ground got drier. It wasn’t raining when I changed to run but I thought it surely would start before I finished if I went outside. The decision to run inside on the tread was a bad one. I officially hate the treadmill. It takes nearly everything I like OUT of running. I get bored stiff before I complete even a couple of miles. I’ve tried watching TV. I’ve tried concentrating on every other thing I can imagine, and have tried just letting my mind go blank. Nothing works. It’s simply a completely dreadful way to spend an hour. I lasted 45 minutes.

Well, I mentioned in my last post that I’m making an attempt to follow the FIRST training method in my run-up to Big Sur. This has generated some discussion among my running friends as well as quite a bit of thought in my own little mind. It might be beneficial for me, and possibly others, to spell out some of these thoughts.

First of all, I’m not shooting for a PR at Big Sur. I’m using this training cycle to get stronger and faster and Big Sur is just a mile marker on the road to some future PR destination. I’m really beginning my training for what I hope to be a Boston qualifying attempt in 2011. Seeing as how I need to shave nearly 30 minutes from my current marathon PR, I’ve got a long, long way to go, so I’m not looking for this program to be the end-all, be-all of my future running goals.

Maybe because of the way it’s marketed, the most appealing element of the FIRST program may be it’s apparent promise of faster running with less effort. This was my assumption as well the first time I heard about FIRST and was the primary reason why I did not look into the program more deeply at that time. I am immediately suspect of anything that promises better results with less effort.

Eventually, though, I began reading positive accounts from other bloggers and I did some of my own investigation into the program. The biggest “Aha” moment came when I realized that, although you run fewer days in the program with less overall mileage, the overall aerobic work rate is probably higher in this system than others. The idea is not that you work less, but that you take some of the stress of running off your legs and feet without reducing your overall cardio-vascular effort.

So the “run less, run faster” title of the book only tells part of the story. “Run less, work just as hard, if not harder” might be more accurate, but might not sell as many books.

Also significant, at least to me, is the fact that the program utilizes a significantly greater number of 20 mile runs. The first and shortest long run of the program is 13 miles, so if you’re used to building up the longer runs gradually, that’s a pretty good jump. Because I’m coming off training for the Santa Barbara Marathon, the 13 miler this weekend doesn’t look especially daunting. In fact, I’m kind of looking forward to it as a break from the faster stuff I’ve experienced so far this week.

And that brings me to the main reason I am attempting the FIRST program, speed. I have little experience when it comes to planning and following through on speed work of any kind: tempo runs, track workouts, whatever. It’s all very foreign to me, and that has its good and bad points. The fact that I’ve never done it means the probability that speedwork will improve my running is huge. The program uses a great variety of track and tempo workouts that make virtually every run different.

I haven’t yet finished my first week of this thing, so any detailed thoughts and impressions will wait until I get further into it. Let’s just say that so far it has not been easy. My body has gotten very used to running within a pretty small window of paces and I have no history of cross-training so there are some major adjustments underway. I’m throwing in some light core work just to confuse my body even further, so I’ll be reporing on that a bit in the future as well.

Stay tuned!

Hope everyone had a good holiday season. I spent mine doing pretty much what I wanted, and that did not include running. I, for once, listened to my body and decided that I deserved and probably needed a bit of a break. So, this being the new year and having already signed up for the Big Sur Marathon, I went out for my first run in about a week. After spending Christmas week in Oregon (sorry about the Rose Bowl Ducks) it felt good to be running in 70 degree weather.

Most of you other bloggers have already posted your end-of-year recaps and your plans/resolutions for the coming year. I have not done much of that, and won’t this year. I’m happy to have capped off last year with a marathon and my ultimate goal for this year is to prepare myself to do the same race next December November and kill the course. It killed me this year and now it’s my turn.

I have also decided to try a new training plan for the Big Sur marathon. I am not anticipating a PR there, and therefore have less to lose by switching things up. I bought the Runner’s World Run Less Run Faster book some time ago and am going to follow their plan. I feel as though I need some help figuring out the whole tempo/track workout thing and am going to give this plan a shot. The idea is that you run fewer runs each week, but you run them harder and supplement the drop in mileage with cross training. The point is not to “train” less. They believe that you can, in fact, work your body harder with their program because you take some of the stress off your legs because of the cardio work. We’ve got a new little training room at the office that I can take advantage of and I’m looking forward to seeing how I’ll respond to the FIRST program. I officially start on Monday and plan to track progress here so stay tuned! And, if you have experience with this program, leave a comment. I’d love to hear about it.

Fog with a low temperature of 47 and a high of 52. That’s only a 5 degree swing in 24 hours. 50 degrees and fog, that’s what outside will be like for the family for the next couple of days in Visalia, CA. Home of . . .

Can’t think of anything right now other than family and heaven knows that’s plenty.

So, it’ll be a 4 hour drive to dinner and a white elephant gift exchange that hopefully will not involve any actual fisticuffs, and then back home tomorrow afternoon when I plan to get in a nice 10 mile run. Mapped out a new 5 mile loop near the house that I can run day or night and plan to circle it twice to give me 25 for the week. 2 weeks after the Santa Barbara Marathon, I’m happy with that.

Oh, almost forgot. I’ll be signing up for Big Sur sometime in the next day or two! Anybody else out there running it? Anybody know anybody who’s running it? As I’ve said before, this is the race (other than far-away dreams of Hopkinton and Boston’s Back Bay) I’ve most wanted to run for many years. It’s the 25^th running (does that make it more special?) and I WILL be there.

I’m going through a reading surge. I do this from time to time. I go months without reading anything other than news and other short-form stuff. Then I get the urge to read a particular book, and before I know it it’s been a couple of weeks and I’ve breezed through 3 or 4. Over the last few years most of my reading has been non-fiction, but I was an English major in college and continue to be drawn to the fiction aisles of our local library and Borders. When I was younger I was more of a reading snob and did not read much “genre” fiction (other than sci-fi when I was a kid). As I got older I spent some time with Graham Greene and John LeCarre and then drifted into P.D. James and John D. Macdonald. After spending some time in Ross Macdonald’s Santa Teresa (his fictional version of Santa Barbara) I finally picked up a couple of Sue Grafton books over the last week. Sue lives here in Santa Barbara part time and resurrected the name Santa Teresa for the town.

Here’s where I begin to actually drift toward making a point.

Much of the work of the authors I named above can be divided into two categories (well, they can obviously be divided many more ways than that, but stick with me on this, I’m trying to make a point). Greene and LeCarre’s spy/thriller novels go in one pile. The other’s detective fiction go in the other. There are some fundamental differences between the two and, believe it or not, those differences can be related to running.

Spy novels are morally murky, for the most part. Nothing is as it seems and nobody is who they claim to be. The destination changes with each turn of the road and questions remain only partially answered.

Detective fiction, on the other hand, takes place in a world that tends to be more clearly defined. There is a specific problem that is presented and our hero, or heroine, logically works through to the end when the killer or thief is caught. The axis of the world is nudged back into place and we can all breath a sigh of relief until we begin reading the next book where the process repeats.

Lately I’ve been reading detective fiction, but my running has taken place in a spy-novel world. My running has been undefined with a future that is unclear. My motivation is unknown and it’s difficult to know where I stand in my little world. I have once again come to realize that I don’t do well without structure. I need the focus that a singular, well-defined goal provides and I need the solid reality of the specific, concrete, steps of a training schedule laid out in front of me.

It’s interesting to note, however, that if I were forced to choose a handful of books from one genre or the other, I would choose the grey world-views of Greene’s Lime and LeCarre’s Smiley over the better-ordered settings of Macdonald’s McGee and Grafton’s Millhone. Similarly, I also spend a fair share of time wishing that I could run for a season without a schedule, when and where and however far I wished. I have tried this a couple of times, and the result is months of slothful inactivity. So, my preference, in both reading and running is for the less constrained, even though it doesn’t work out the best for day-to-day running.

So, it’s back to the schedule making and the goal setting. I mentioned Big Sur before. That’s probably my next big event. It’s currently at 72% filled, so I can’t wait too much longer before pulling the trigger. It kind of sucks that I’ve got to shell out $120 just before Christmas for a race at the end of April, but given everything I’ve described about my schedule-favoring temperment, this might be what it takes to get me out the door and down the road.

I got me a case of them low down, post-marathon blues. I spent a nice quiet weekend reading by the fire, and hanging out with the family and I should be ready to hit the roads again, but I’m not. I basically took the last week off and that’s probably the cause of my lethargy. The only real solution, I know, is to go out and get a nice good run in. I’m out of excuses; the rains have stopped and my legs feel good, so I’ll be out and about town at lunch today.

Promise.

Looking forward - Anybody out there run the Big Sur Marathon AND stayed at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park (which is basically the start)? I’m curious about shuttles from the finish back to the start after the race. If I can confirm that these shuttles do indeed exist (the website says they do) I may be doing this little dandy at the end of April. Big Sur has been near the top of my “Must Do” list forever and with this being the 25^th running, there is probably no better time.

Got this picture emailed to me by a friend and decided it would be the best way to begin this post. The innaugural SBIMarathon is in the books, and from my perspective it was a very well run race and I’m looking forward to next year. There were tons of energetic volunteers all along the course, everything was well marked and organized and I can’t recommend the race itself more highly. I know I’m biased, being a local, but I think the race organizers nailed this one!

As far as my personal race, it was not my best. Strike that, it was really my worst. I finished in 4:21 and felt completely and utterly defeated by this race.. But I’m not going to concentrate on that (yet). Instead I’m going to do my best to describe the high points of the day. And there were many.

The race was supposed to start at 6:30 and I arrived around 5:30 thanks to my wonderful wife who dropped me off. I had a “secret” parking spot planned out, but traffic was diverted differently and I wouldn’t have been able to make it on my own. She saved me a long walk. To stay warm most runners were able to hang out in classrooms, the gym and the library of Ellwood school which sits right on top of the start. Around 6:10 I wandered outside and runners began filling the start area. Unfortunately the race was delayed 1/2 hour because of a freeway accident. I chose to stay outside and sat down on the curb to wait. We re-lined up as the sun was rising and took off right around 7:00. The weather was great, nice and cool with no wind and it was awesome to see thousands of runners filling up the roads I have run on so often.

I had lined up in the corral just ahead of the 4 hour pace group, and I planned to go out slowly. The pace group moved just ahead of me during the first couple of miles but I was running right on schedule. I had a 9:00 pace in my head and jotted down on a pace chart in my pocket. I knew I probably wouldn’t hold that pace through the whole race, but wanted to finished sub 4:00.

Somewhere around mile 3 I heard a familiar voice behind me talking about something crazy and knew that Jeff and Juls were sneaking up on me. I hesitated to turn around for a minute or two and just continued to listen in to their conversation. I also began hearing spectators calling out to Santa. Once I turned around I found out why. Jeff had gotten the goofy idea the night before the race to put on a Santa hat, pigtails and a skirt. He was running not as Santa, but Mrs. (or miss?) Claus. So, I had the pleasure of meeting Juls and running with this hairy-legged Santa for a number of miles. I lost them for a while due to a pit stop, but the two of them went a long way toward making this run, at least the first 18.5 miles, very memorable. Thank you Jeff and Juls!

Just before the 15^th mile I passed this good-looking group of folks. My family and friends gathered to ring the cowbell (held by my father-in-law) and rattle the triangle (held by my son’s friend Kyle). During training I ran through this interesection many times imagining the boost I would receive from this crowd. They were even louder and more inspiring than I imagined. If you’ve been following my blog for the last 4-5 years (and really, who hasn’t?) you’ll remember that I ran the 2006 California International marathon with my father-in-law (65 at the the time!). I am so grateful that he and my mother-in-law came down from Oregon for the race. Thank you!

Miles 15-18 went well. Most of these are downhill and I felt good and relaxed. I was still on pace and at one point I actually encouraged the crowd to make some noise, but just after mile eighteen my tank went from half-full to nearly empty. I believe I fueled well for the race, and continued to try and gulp down some electrolyte and water, but by mile nineteen, when I again saw my family, I was hurting. My energy level was mostly depleted and my legs were beginning to complain. Just before mile 20 my left hamstring just seized up with very little warning and I couldn’t put any weight on it at all. I knew that if the cramp didn’t go away, I was on the verge of my first DNF.

Most marathoners know that the race really begins around mile twenty and that fatigue is nearly always a factor. With 20 miles under you belt you still have, when you’re running at my pace, nearly an hour of running left. That can be a very long hour, even if you’re feeling decent! In my state I knew that hour would be stretched longer and be more difficult, in the best of circumstances. In the worst, my race was over.

After a few minutes I could begin to put some weight on my leg. After a few more I began walking very gingerly and slowly. Eventually I was able to begin running slowly and made it about another mile before it seized up again. At this point there was a guardrail on the side of the road and I was able to sit down and try and rub out the cramp. When the worst of it subsided I was able to sit and do some stretches to loosen it up a bit more before I began walking and then slowly running again. It cramped one last time around mile 23, but I was able to walk/run the rest of the way to the finish where, once again, my family was waiting.

I guess the best way to sum everything up is to remember that 5 months ago I wasn’t running at all. I’m now posting the occasional 40 mile week, consistent 100+ mile months and on track for a spring marathon, if I decide to do one. I’ve also been able to reconnect with some of the folks I’d lost track of, both in the real-life running community and through this blog.

Don’t know what the next stop is, but this train is back on the track.

I took off work early yesterday to put up Christmas lights. As you may have heard, I’m running a marathon this weekend. Aside from not wanting to be spending time climbing up and down a ladder, my parents-in-law are coming down from Oregon and I thought it would be nice to have the lights up for their visit. I couldn’t put them up last weekend because of another around-the-house project and I really wanted to have a good full December with lights this year. Seems like we’ve tended to get them up later than sooner in years past and I didn’t want to be sitting around being lazy and feeling guilty on Saturday.

So I pulled out the boxes and spread the lights out on the front yard. I read the “Merry Christmas” note I’d written to myself and tucked into the box of lights last year. I hooked up an extension cord and plugged each string in to test it before hanging them on the house and the front hedge. Got them all up as the day started to darken. Perfect timing. I hooked up some other cords in the garage and threw the switch. Half the lights around the eves of the house stayed dark. Approximately 4 strings have bad sections. Half the front of the house has bad lights. I stood in my front yard as the sun went down and decided I just didn’t want to deal with this whole mess. Half my lights were bad and I had half a plastic container of lights in the garage that had gone bad from previous years. And I’d tested everything before putting them up. All my preparation and forethought had turned to crap with the flip of a switch.

Over the last week I’ve run a handful of night runs and I’ve watched as the neighborhoods have started to glow brighter. I read Jeff’s post changing our attitudes toward gift giving and receiving. We’ve broken out our Christmas music and I’m reading and praying and just as I’m starting to get into the groove of the season everything seemed to get tossed upside down as I stared at the dark patches in my Christmas lights.

And I let that feeling of frustration carry me through the rest of the evening.

Today, looking back, it seems kind of silly, but I know it’s not. I know that more often than not I drive my little train right off the track for trivial reasons. I know the lights aren’t that important. I also know that they represent deeper frustrations about things I either haven’t completed or need to begin. Everything is incomplete and imperfect and sometimes that realization hits me square between the eyes and dazes me.

Oh well, I’ll get the lights finished on Saturday morning and I’ll continue to try and abide in that which is complete and perfect, especially during this crazy, frustrating, hurried blessed month.

It’s probably not a good idea to change up your running philosophy during a marathon taper, but that’s kind of what I’ve done. I’ve run 12 straight days. That’s significantly longer than any other consecutive streak I’ve had in the past, but before coming to any snap conclusions about how I’m overtraining at a crucial recovery time, let me be clear about what this streak has entailed. I am still tapering, and my weekly running totals have declined the last couple of weeks, as they should. I’ve run a handful of little 1 mile “jogs” over the last twelve days, and I will not run anything longer than 4 or 5 miles this week.

Also, this little change in strategy didn’t happen on a complete whim. I’ve long known that running sooner, rather than later, after a hard run helps me recover. My muscles get tight a I get more sore if I completely stop running for a day or two after hard efforts. I’ve known this for quite some time, and have tried to pursue a “run everyday” philosophy in the past. It’s never stuck. Until now, I guess.

I wrote the first part of this post last night (Tues night). This morning I woke up feeling pretty lousy. Why is it that every time I think I’ve latched onto something good, things seem to fall apart. (Wow, did that sound depressing?)

So, now I’m in a quandry. Do I run my 3-4 miles today as planned? Am I getting sick? Should I move to Sweden?

Speaking of questions, have you noticed that “paper or plastic” has now been replaced with “would you like a bag?” What will it be next, “would you like your change?” Oops, that’s already happened with the “would you like to donate to . . .”

I always walk out with no bag and no change.

Enough wandering - it’s Wednesday and I’m running a marathon on Sunday. I feel completely not ready. My legs feel heavy. I feel heavy. I’ve completely forgotten everything positive about the last few months.

So, as a reminder:

• I’ve run 3 consecutive 100+ mile months
• I ran a 20 mile run, a 1/2 marathon race and a 22 mile run on consecutive Saturdays.
• I ran every inch of the marathon course in training
• I ran in the rain, in the dark and in the cold (relatively)
• I PRed in the 1/2 marathon
• My body is READY FOR THIS RACE

OK, time to go out to make it 13 days in a row.