Grammar Gripe.

I recently started noticing a particular sentence structure being used in journalism. It goes something like this:

The number of cows increased to 12,000 from 11,950

What's wrong with this you might ask? I find that it sets a pair of numbers in an order that is directly contrary to the description of their relationship. Since in English we read and write left to right (I'm aware this would be different in other languages, Hebrew for example, that read right to left), I expect that the word (or conjugations of) increasing would be followed by a one number and then a larger number. This is not how articles are being written, and as I read them I keep getting tripped up by pairs of numbers that do not seem to match with the description of their relationship. So, if you write articles (or anything for that matter) please stop this!

\Rant

~Alex

Blogging Montage

Well Lane,

I never did see a training montage as a response to my last post, to which I'm attributing my poor training and lackluster performance at Jarred's Run last week. Regardless, in the interest of reviving this blog, please scroll slowly through the following pictures and hum Chariots of Fire. I hope it will suffice for a (rather short) montage. Enjoy!

~Alex

I'm Back (This Time It's Lane, and It's for Real)

I have neglected this blog for a while and that's been bad.

I have decided to can the math posts for now.  They take too long to write well to fit into my schedule on a consistent basis.  They may reappear in the future or not, we'll have to see.  Regular running updates will resume, starting immediately:

The past couple weeks have been interesting.  I put in weeks of 65.5, 29.9, 70.0, 50.2, and 26.0.  Why the inconsistency?  The 29.9 mile week was done in three days (I took 4 off due to no power and dangerous conditions: I wasn't getting any kind of quality sleep and was just trying to survive) and the 50.2 was the first week of a taper for my two goal races of the "season", the Hot Coco 5k and Jarred's Run (a 5k/10k).  I took second in the Hot Coco 5k and earned my first cash prize of $50.  I suppose I won't quit my day job.

I had anticipated a quicker race than actual materialized.  I had planned to stay comfortable the first mile and start picking people off in the second and third miles.  Instead, a pack of 4 ended up running at a pace that was fairly comfortable for me nearly the entire way and the race didn't break open until about half a mile from the finish.  I was caught a bit flat-footed but still managed to take second with a near-PR in 16:26.

Leading up to Thanksgiving morning, I had won the 5k at Jarred's Run twice, won the 10k once, and taken second in the 5k once.  I had decided on the 10k to try to break my relatively soft PR (35:11).  I assumed the race would be a lonely time-trial.  I started out quick, with one of my high school teammates who was running the 5k flying out of the gates.  I wanted to keep up with him and when he started to fall behind, I pressed on, passing the half-mile in 2:27 and mile in 5:07.  I knew these were too fast so eased off a little.  I got to the 2.5k mark in 8:26 and the 5k in 17:18, around 30 seconds ahead of my first 5k the previous year.  I had slowed down quite a bit and when I turned around I was surprised to see someone relatively close behind.  My mind somehow made me think the lead was only 20 seconds (unlikely...) so I really started to push myself.  I ended up putting the next 2.5k in 8:18 and the second 5k in 16:50 for a total time of 34:08.  I was really moving and pushing myself through the second half.  Second place came in around 37:50, so I don't think the estimated lead of 20 seconds was very accurate.  I decided to take the rest of the week off as if I had just finished a running "season".

I will write about the lessons learned from this summer and fall of training and racing soon.

Until then...

 Alex: cue blogging montage

I'm Back!

Whoa, two things happened for the first time in a while today: 1) I'm writing a blog post! 2) I went for a run!

Holy smokes, what am I doing? As far as the blog post goes, just finally getting back to it and ruminating about my running.

On the running side though, I think I am finally going to get back into it. I've said for a while now that I would get back into running when I felt that I really wanted to. So, finally it seems that has come. For a little while I have been wishing I could run more, but was frustrated by the amount of time that work took up. I finally came to the realization that I simply need to sacrifice a bit of sleep for it (probably not more than 1/2 hour a night), and that I think it will be worth it for the sake of my sanity and my energy levels (and my waistline...).

Besides, I am planning on running a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day, so I want to do more than just waddle through it. How good of shape can I get in over the next three weeks just running a few miles most nights? Probably not very, but it will be better than nothing. So, here goes.

Lane, if you would be so kind: Cue the training montage

~Alex

Training, Week of 10/23

Whoa.  That was a heck of a cut-back week.  I intended to let my legs catch up and recover a little from all of the work I've been doing over the past couple weeks (including a 7-to-54 mile/week jump) but I feel like I really turned the corner for this training cycle, both physically and mentally.  The over-all big picture numbers are as follows: 55.7 miles in 6:37:26 (7:09/mile average).  This really doesn't tell the whole story though.  Monday started with a relatively slow run, a bit under 9 miles at a bit over 8:00/mile pace.  From there, I took off.

I intended to do a long run that was less, well, long than usual this week to let my legs recover from that aspect of training.  The scheduled 12-miler ended up being 12.84 at 6:53/mile pace.  I don't usually run under 7:00/mile when I'm just out for a training run because I feel like it puts unnecessary wear and tear on my muscles, but I guess I just felt good.  Thursday's track workout was where things really started to go well, however.

The prescribed workout was 3-4 repeats of 5:00 each with 2:00 recover.  I joking said to one of the guys who is about my speed during the workouts that it would be about a mile and he agreed seriously, except that he was thinking about 5:10/mile pace.  I didn't think I'd be able to handle the full complement, but I decided to try to hold the pace as long as possible.  I ended up with mile repeats of 5:07, 5:09, 5:10, and 5:07!  Easily the best mile repeat workout I've ever done.  It felt great and I was riding a runner's high until after my next run on Friday!  Friday's run was equally awesome, 11.18 miles at 6:52/mile pace.  Then I took the day off (first in 27 days, 238.6 days) and ran an easy 5 on today (Sunday).

As I already mentioned, I felt like I turned the corner this week.  I had a great workout that showed I'm getting back in shape and I'm mentally "with it" again.  My legs and mind are remembering what it's like to be in good physical condition and even to attempt the impossible.  I know that breaking my 5k PR on the road on a rolling course in November and then smashing my 10k PR on another rolling road course less than a week later is impossible.  But running is about convincing myself to do the impossible.

Training, Week of 10/16

Running is going pretty well!  This week I ran 64.7 miles in 7:57:46 (7:24/mile average) and my legs kept going through a new milestone: 12,000 logged miles!  I got in a long run of 16.5 miles, a 8x600m workout, and a 5k tempo run.  I've come (somewhat) to grips with the existential crisis I was having with regards to my running career and am feeling confident as I move towards my next couple races.

As far as why I'm continuing to run, I have to admit that I still haven't solved that issue.  I'm no longer running for a team and I don't really have enough time to devote to truly pushing towards reaching my potential and those things were really frustrating for me before.  Now, however, I think that I've reached a mindset where those things don't matter as much, and although I may not know quite why I am still training a reasonable amount.

A Picture and a Thought - 2

Reason #362 I can't wait to get married to Bri: Not having to fold sheets by myself.