Sunday, 7/6/2014 to Saturday, 7/12/2014 - Dirt Cheap #4

I ran 6 times this week, 32.64 miles, one was a warmup run of 1.2 miles.

Sunday, 7/6/2014: 2 runs of 7.5 and 4.9 miles, 75F, 57% RH, 7 mph SSW wind, sunny

I was up a bit late, 9AM. I geared up and was out by 10:30AM.

Garmin Connect Activity for Winding route to Lake Ontario

I thought about doing a "Bridges" run of about 14 miles as I struck up a nice and easy pace. I ran the first 3.5 miles of my usual 10K route and then headed down into the flats by going down Seneca Park Ave, St Joseph St and back up Van Voorhis Ave. I had a decision to make ... continue up to Thomas Ave and turn left to head to the Rorke Bridge to cross to the west side of the Genesee River or turn right onto Sagamore Drive to head back? I comprised by turning right onto Sagamore Drive and then stretched it by turning left onto St Paul Blvd to head to Lake Ontario for 7.5 miles at 8:08 pace. My splits were: 8:12, 7:57, 7:56, 7:59, 9:11, 8:09, 7:44 and 7:50 over the last 0.5 mile.

Garmin Connect Activity for A tired, nice and easy run back from Lake Ontario

I walked along the tiny beach as I had a Gu and hydrated for about 2 or 3 minutes. I still had to get back so I took the most direct route at a slower nice and easy pace. My splits were: 8:48, 8:42, 10:13, 9:15 and 8:01 over the last 0.9 mile.

I think I earned a bit of downtime the rest of the day after running 12.4 miles. My darling wife, Christine, and I did make it out to Target after a while. We bought a oversized 2.2 cubic foot, 1250W, Panasonic microwave oven since our 10 year old Sharp microwave oven had died. Our coffee mugs are a bit tall so we needed a big microwave oven ... though it's big enough to cook a small turkey. I did notice that Target's price was $35 cheaper than Best Buy.

Monday, 7/7/2014: The usual rest day after a long run ... moving on.

Tuesday, 7/8/2014: A "coulda" run day.

I had to stay at work late because a thunderstorm rolled through at 4:30PM which is when I usually leave work. Then I stayed home while UPS delivered a 1 TB Western Digital Black hard drive that I ordered from newegg.com. I was somewhat dismayed by the really small package that I was handed by the UPS guy. The box was truly maybe only 1 inch larger on all sides that the hard drive! But I unboxed it from its air bubble cushion, installed it and tested it as a data drive in my oldest son's old Blue Orb desktop that he gave me. I built it for him way back in xxx. He gave it back to me since he uses a newer, more powerful laptop. I loaded Windows 7 on it on a 120GB hard drive and it works pretty well. Anyway, It passed the SMART test and the quick and extended tests of Western Digital Life Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. I would have packaged it a bit more cushion if I were shipping a hard drive.

A Western Digital hard drive packed in bubble wrap was in this box with less than 1 inch to spare on each side!

Wednesday, 7/9/2014: 2 runs of 1.2 and Dirt Cheap #4 of 4.54 miles, 70F, 60% RH, 6 mph NNW wind, partly cloudy.

It had rained yesterday and a brief shower moved through in the afternoon but it was a Dirt Cheap Wednesday so I went home, changed and headed down to the Devil's Bathtub section of Mendon Ponds Park for Dirt Cheap #4, aka DC#4. DC#4 was held in time trail fashion where we start going down the stairs in bib order in 5 second intervals. I got there at 5:45PM in plenty of time to snag a close parking spot on the hill. I met up with Prem Kumar and Andy Ciaio before the race. Both had just run the Finger Lakes 50K on Saturday just 4 days ago and looked none the worse for wear.

I got out for a nice 1.2 mile warmup run at 8:15 pace, link here. I had to remind myself that I was warming up and not racing. This is tough for me once I have a race bib on my shorts. I had sweat through my Firecracker 4 tech shirt from Saturday so I changed into my orange Spring Forward 2013 tech shirt before the race. I decided to carry a 10 ounce hand bottle of water which I did use once during the race.

My Golden Bib ... getting dirtier and more tagged with every race!

I started first since I was one of 6 with a Golden Bib and I had the lowest number of 10000. It was kind of nice to see some of the holders of the Golden Bib. Ellen made fun that a "dummy" was being sent off first and then I was being sent at 6:30:05 PM. And ... off I went! Lots of runners were going to be chasing me.


I almost wiped out at the bottom of the stairs ... all of a sudden I saw a photographer plus rocks, roots and a patch of mud. So I put on the brakes, concentrated on my footing and continued onward.

I had a lot of speed at the bottom of the stairs and almost tripped ... 

I was in the lead for a whole 2:44 before another holder of the Golden Bib passed me right at a turn to the right. He almost went straight and was glad that I made the turn. I soon found out that I should have pulled my laces tighter on my Salomon SpeedCross 3 trail shoes as the deep patches of mud tried to suck my shoes off. Yes, there was mud and I went straight through it. Another holder of the Golden Bib named Chris passed me and then I passed him back. This was my sixth DC#4 so I basically knew the course. I walked the steep hills and ran the flats and downs like usual. I knew the bog was toward the end. I had a choice of taking the twisty and turny route through the trees to the left or going straight through the bog. I chose to mostly go straight through and paid the price. I sank thigh deep about 2/3 of the way through the bog and had to balance myself using my hands in the mud as I extracted myself. My shoes thankfully came back out still on my feet and I continued onward. It took me a bit to get back up to speed. Chris passed again with a mile to go and then another holder of the Golden Bib passed me just before we broke into the open meadow with about 3/4 mile to go. I was running OK. I wanted to run faster but I did the best I could. I knew I was close and just concentrated on finishing. And ... I was done in 43:36, 4.54 miles, 9:37 pace. My splits were: 8:02, 9:20, 11:07, 10:48 and 8:04 over the last 0.54 mile. I made my way to where other finishers were hanging out. Everyone had gone through the bog and sank at least knee deep ... nice!

I hung out afterward with Chris and we swapped running stories. I was impressed that he had ran muddy Sehgahunda this year in 6:00:32. A reader of this blog, Abby, introduced herself. She said that she found it when she wanted to find out about the Mendon Mauler. Hmm ... I think I will try to make old races easier to find. It might take a while with over 400 posts. I think I will use blogger's pages to list my races by year, races by race and PRs by race. Again ... it might take a while but I will start ... soon. Other projects, races, life may and probably will get in the way.

Anyway, I ran well. I finished 51st out of 290, link here. I was 3rd out of 8 in my M55-59 series age group, link here. Ed Housel, who is not in the series, came in first at 40:22 in our M55-59 age group. Bill Beyerbach was 2nd at 42:00, 1st in our M55-59 series age group.

Thursday, 7/10/2014: Rest day after a race.

Friday, 7/11/2014: 10 miles, 1:19:40, 7:58 pace, 77F, 44% RH, calm, sunny

Garmin Connect Activity for Prep for the Boilermaker

The couch tried to suck me in but I fought it off to get out for a confidence boosting 15K plus a 0.7 cooldown run on a beautiful Friday evening. The conditions were probably exactly like it will be on Sunday ... hot and a bit humid. I took it out a bit harder than nice and easy and kept the same pace for the entire 15K. Done in 1:13:10 at 7:52 pace. I took a minute to cool down right there on Seneca Ave and then continued onward for a 0.7 mile cooldown run at 9:17 pace to get to 10 miles even. My splits were: 7:53, 7:46, 7:47, 7:49, 7:46, 7:49, 8:09, 8:00, 7:51 and 8:48. I was dripping wet with sweat when I was done ... a well earned sweat!

My darling wife, Christine, soon cooked up an old standby ... pizza for a supper. A runner's staple ... tasty along with chips!

Saturday, 7/12/2014: 4.5 miles, 39:39, 8:48 pace, 72F, 73% RH, calm, sunny

I was up early ... my darling wife's snoring may have been the cause but I'll never tell! Anyway, I saw that Medved's last day of celebrating their 30th anniversary was today. I don't usually run the day before a race.

Garmin Connect Activity for Lemonade run with Medved

Normally I am not a group runner. But I wanted to help support Medved in a small way. An Adidas and New Balance rep were there so on a whim I tried out a pair of the Adidas Glide Boost in size 12.5 for the run. The lead group ran a really nice and easy pace which I appreciated. It got hot and muggy during the run and we were all soaked with sweat by the end of the run. My splits were: 9:16, 9:01, 8:48, 8:37 and 7:52 over the last 0.5 mile. The Glide Boost felt pretty comfortable during the run.

Christine suggested around 2:30PM that we do our laundry so 5 loads of laundry ensued. Trust me ... some of my tech clothes could have walked down to the basement by themselves. I went down to get the last load of laundry around 10:30PM ... when I should have been asleep! The alarm to get up for the Boilermaker 15K was set for 3:20AM!