More records? What's the catch?

TWO RECORDS!!!

         Surprised is too tame a word. I have learned that the temperature surely makes a great impact on my speed.  About 85 degrees today.  Although I worked before I ran, I flew around the track (from MY point of view).  Yes, I know, this may very well be a mistake.  I came within .17 one-hundredths of a second of reaching my all-time so far unreachable goal of a 75 second quarter.  I know, that doesn’t sound great.  The guy with no legs who is in the Olympics would kick my a**.  I probably would have beaten 75 seconds, but I’ve taken to looking at my time as I pass the half-way point.  When I saw, in my blurry-no glasses state, that it looked like 37 seconds, I used extra energy trying to read it.  I think I did well because I started from the first step really pushing it.  It was back in Tirana when I shaved a couple seconds from my time after I decided that the only way to go faster was to give all my energy at the start.
I beat my previous record by more than 2 seconds!  I am sticking to my story, like the 16-year-old from China, that I never used banned substances.  I admit that this time might very well be a mistake.  I guess I will find out in the near future.  I wonder if I will be able to find a 1/4-mile or 400 meter track in downtown Moscow; maybe I’ll have to take the metro to a track somewhere.  I’m a bit apprehensive because now that I have nearly achieved this goal, I will have to perform similarly every time.  Ugh.
Not only did I smash the record for the 1/4, I killed my final sprint time by .2 seconds.  This was amazing, too.  I qued up ‘Going the Distance’ from the Rocky soundtrack and moved to about the 1:00 mark when it really gets going.  I’m thinking I should play ‘The Final Bell’ next time.
Music…today brings into question it’s significance.  During the fabulous quarter time, I was listening to Slate’s Political Gabfest, and at about 40 seconds, my arm clipped the cable and pulled it out of the iPod.  Very distracting.

Another interesting point about today’s run is my pull-ups.  I was carrying a bag of vegetables and a piece of rhubarb pie to my friend’s mother.  For this reason, I was taking a detour—not by the elementary school where I usually do pull-ups.  Therefore, not until the way back did I do any pull-ups.  I would have time for only one set.  I decided I was feeling tough, so I tried for a record in those, too. (I knew the 1/4 mile was a record).  I did 12 without stopping.  I rested for a second and did a few more.  Fifteen. Another, another. Stop.  One more.  Try again—Ahhh! My arms give up.  So I got 18.  Pretty good.  I’ve done more only once in my life.  I did 21 during my Navy Physical Fitness Test days when I was 19.  From this blog, July 27:

 I’m increasing the number of pull-ups.  I’m thinking now that I am stronger than ever.  When I was 19 and doing the Navy Physical Fitness Test, I didn’t 19 pull-ups (actually 20, but they didn’t count the last one.  You needed to come to still hang on the last pull-up or it didn’t count.  I did 19, then 20, then came down, then went up again and dismounted without hanging.  The person counting took my final no-hang pull-up as an incomplete exercise.  I complained and he dismissed me with, “Don’t worry, you’ll do another one next year.”  What a (opposite of prophetic) prophetic statement.  A week later, I had a tractor accident and never did another Navy PFT.

Writing about tractor accident:  http://jamesmartinswritings.blogspot.com/2009/02/tractor-accident-1985.html and  http://jamesmartinswritings.blogspot.com/2009/03/tractor-accident-1985-2.html  copy and paste the links.

Now my goal is to do 20 pull-ups and then 21.  I’ll show that name-less, inattentive, Navy counting person.

two records!! Cheating? Not reeeeeealy.

Sunday morning.  60 something degrees.  Super!  I wanted to see if I could run faster on the 1/4 mile if I was more fresh rather than after I’d already run 10 minutes like usual.  I rode my bike to the track and began my run with the 1/4 instead of running it in the middle.  I did run faster!!!  I got my best time.  But still not 75 seconds.  I used to have 75 seconds as my goal, but now I’m try for 80 seconds.  Terribly slow, but it will have to be sufficient.  When I began the 1/4 mile, I felt the familiar lightness of the feet like they were skimming over the surface.  By the time I was done, though, I was feeling the old cement shoes-trick.
I ran back to the house where I could run the final sprint to my driveway.  As I was running, I could feel myself pushing but I didn’t feel  like I was doing anything great.  I did, though.
I began by listening to the Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me podcast.  It was especially good.  Usually when Mo Rocca is one of the guests, he is the funniest of the three.  This time, however, there was a new British dude who stole the show.   I was walking around the track in preparation for my run and there was another guy walling the opposite direction.  Some meters before we met, he had to hear me laughing like a walrus.

disappointment

Beautiful weather!  79 degrees at 5:00 or so when I ran.  SENENTY-NINE!!  Tomorrow, it is supposed to be equally wonderful.  I was disappointed today because of my final sprint time.  I was thinking during the run that I would see the time and it would be under 2:19.  I was expecting maybe 2:18.##.  When I saw that it was 2:23, I was a bit deflated.  I guess I should not have been surprised; all the time I was running, I kept pushing myself to run a bit faster, and I did.  That tells me that I wasn’t giving it my all.  I began my sprint and simply jogged rather than sprint.  I didn’t feel the lightness of my feet, and I didn’t recognize air rushing by my cheeks.  By the time I finished, though, I was truly running fast, but it wasn’t enough to jerk me out of the slow, slow, slows.
Sunday is my next scheduled running day.  I think I will go to church, which is next to the HS track, and try my sprint.  I will see if, when sprinting without a 10 minute workout before, I can run faster.
There was a few people sitting by a truck outside the track.  Although they looked sporty enough, they were not paying any attention to me.  I imagined them watching me when  I wasn’t looking.  I wondered if I looked like I was running fast.  For the first half of the 1/4 mile, I got 40 seconds.  The second half needs to be quicker if I think I will beat 80 seconds.  So…my second half was truly faster.  I can always push myself faster.
 I’m increasing the number of pull-ups. I’m thinking now that I am stronger than ever. When I was 19 and doing the Navy Physical Fitness Test, I didn’t 19 pull-ups (actually 20, but they didn’t count the last one. You needed to come to still hang on the last pull-up or it didn’t count. I did 19, then 20, then came down, then went up again and dismounted without hanging. The person counting took my final no-hang pull-up as an incomplete exercise. I complained and he dismissed me with, “Don’t worry, you’ll do another one next year.” What a (opposite of prophetic) prophetic statement. A week later, I had a tractor accident and never did another Navy PFT.

thought crime

Late afternoon, 96 degrees.  I achieved my goal of 80 seconds.  The final sprint, however, was my slowest at over 69 seconds.  All the while I was running, I was pretty sure that I was not going to get a good time, and sure enough, I didn’t.

After RAGBRAI

Ran near Mom and Dad’s place.  I had been in the car most of the day, so I needed to get some energy expended.  Sunday, on the first day of RAGBRAI the day before, I had ridden 16 miles round trip into Cherokee and back to the truck.

County Fair time

Ran through the county fair which is straight down the street.  It was a great run.  When I began, it was sprinkling just a tiny amount.  Listened to a Mosaic podcast during the run but just before I began the final sprint, I called up Roy G. Biv and What I Like About You.

swimming

Up at 05:30 so I could run a bit before picking up someone at the airport.  Felt great.  Three dogs saying hi while I ran by.  Their owners held them close—very nice.
Didn’t run yesterday because I took the boys swimming in the lake.  Oskar did a great job back floating for the first time, and Maxim performed some awesome treading of water.  All I want them to do is be able to survive for a few minutes in the open water.  All the “Red Cross” lessons they have had are too worried that they know the crawl, the flutter kick, the whip kick and other non-sense.  They spend their time fiddling with that garbage and then they can’t keep themselves above water.

95 degrees

Run in HOT today.  More than 95 degrees.  Boys were with me on the way back from Day Care.  Both were complaining about their bikes so I did not pay much attention to the run.  Very sweaty.

Punching the time clock

This is a post that I didn't save on the  day I wrote it. It's out of order.

Maxim was out of bed by the time I got ready to go at 6:00.  I ran feeling sluggish.  The boys were taking my concentration.   I easily got under one minute.  Goes to show how you can do almost anything with practice.
Thinking back to my run on Sunday—55 seconds.  I would have thought such a time were nearly unattainable; but now it is expected.

              

New Record!

Ok.  Yet another final run at our place in Panora.  I ran about 1.5 miles before my final sprint.  Much less than in the past—an abbreviated run.  How fast could I do this final run if it wasn’t preceded by not wearisome effort, but just a bit of warm-up?  Many times, my final sprint is just an extension of the whole run.  At one point, I simply run a bit faster than I was during the run.  THIS time, however, the situation would be kind of a race against my earlier self.  I walked about 30 seconds before the start at the bottom of the hill and then charged forward.  I had just seen Lolo Jones, leading in the gold medal race at the 2008 Olympics, hit a hurdle and stumble.  I would be Lolo Jones, going for gold.  I was thinking, “Maybe I’ll get 53 seconds.”
My feet and toes were lightly brushing the pavement as I flew forward.  I could feel the air flipping by my face and I arms breezing as they swished by my thighs.  I was able to maintain this power even into the meat of the incline.  After about 2/3 of the sprint, however, things started to slow down.  My arms and legs gained weight.  I needed cranes to lift each foot, I needed the bionic muscles of Lee Majors to make my arms fly forward.  By the end, I imagined someone viewing me and saying, “What has happened to that guy?  Why is he walking like a tortoise with an infected claw?”  I reached the end, pushed the button on my watch.
Relief.  Delicious pain surged through every vein.  My legs were screaming, even my arms complained relentlessly.  My time?  53.36!  A new record!
This was a short run because after I got started, I realized that it would be totally ridiculous to be late for the parent’s council at the summer camp where I was to pick up the boys.

time plugging

Another run in the afternoon because we are beginning work in the field at 6:30. Temperature a lovely 85 or so. Although I thought for sure that I would make my 1/4-mile goal of 80 seconds, I didn’t even do as well as Tuesday. At the halfway point, I saw the digits turn to 41, so I knew I was a bit behind the pace of last time, so I pushed hard. Not enough, though. I busted my butt on the final sprint and succeeded in breaking the 1-minute mark. This may have been because I set up Roy G. Biv to finish on the iPod, and break into “What I Like About You” just as I started the final. The music is the motivation—my final time was just a bit more than 1/2 second slower than my record of 57.88. My have beaten the record if I had not been distracted by the fact that one of the ear buds came out after 20 seconds or so.

.001%; historical present

After a full day of work again.  (See 2 July 2012)  This time, though, the temp is about 85.  I ran sluggishly with little excitement.  I jogged into the High School athletic area and onto the track.  I was pushing it a bit.  I felt the eyes of a couple people because there was some kind of baseball game going on.  It was a tournament game b/c there was a IHSAA sign at the gate.  I told the ladies at the gate, in small breathy gasps, that I was just going to run around there and back out again.  They smiled and let me pass.  I wanted to look like I was really working out, which I was, to give credence to my story.  Actually, I needn’t have worried about it b/c I was inside the fence for no more than three minutes.
 I started the 1/4-mile sprint, running on my toes and picking up my knees.  Going around the first turn, I thought, “I should have a goal of 80 seconds.”  To tell the truth, this is quite a letdown, b/c when I started the 1/4-miles, my goal was 75 seconds; I thought I might be able to keep it up for four laps like my nephew.  What a joke.
 So anyway, I get to the halfway point and I look at my watch—40+ seconds.  Almost exactly on pace for 80 seconds.  (A bit less than 40 is what is needed, of course)  I can’t read the hundredths b/c I’m not wearing my glasses, and the effort needed to concentrate and read the exact fraction would slow me down.  I decide to push it a bit.  I’m running, my legs are feeling heavy.  I’m nearing the end and BEEP.  I press the button on my watch.  80.09 seconds!  I didn’t make it.  9 hundredths of a second!  If I had run, not 1% faster, not .1% faster, not .01% faster, but .001% faster, I’d have made my goal.  That’s like having 1000 pieces of paper that do not fit through the eye of a huge needle.  ONE less piece of paper, and they would all fit through the needle.
From now on, I have an attainable goal...but it won't be easy.  The psychological nature of running will now come into play.  Now I have a realistic goal, but one that I know will take some real work.  I will give the needed effort and probably succeed.  It will probably be much like my sprinting at the end of runs in Panora. At the beginning, I wasn't sure if I could make 60 seconds.  Now, I'm disappointed if I DON'T break one minute.
 You will probably notice that I achieved my WORST time on the final sprint to my house.  There is an explanation.  About 1/2-mile before the beginning of my sprint, I began to feel the damage done by the extra water and lemonade I drank before the run.  Years ago, my friend, Adrianne called this illness ‘fish bowl gut’.  Such an illness is characterized by a sloshing feeling of the contents in your stomach.  Nausea and vomiting feel certain.  I suffered from a severe case of fish bowl gut.  I stick it out and run to the start of my sprint.  I walk for 10 steps and begin. My feet feel like they are stuck in concrete.  I plod along to the finish.  I look at my watch and see that it says 2:27.32.  It's easy to lop off the 1:20 from the 1/4-mile and I quickly realize that my time is more than 7 seconds more than one minute!  Oozhasno!
 During this section, I’ve used the “historical present”.  A linguistic technique during which story tellers talk about the past as if it was the present.  Follow the link below to hear a couple of language geeks talk about its use on Slate. They explain that a Seinfeld character useed the historical present to describe taking a severed toe to the hospital on a bus.  They also play an extensive clip of the show.  Quite entertaining.

http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2012/07/lexicon_valley_the_historical_present_in_seinfeld_and_the_novels_of_charlotte_bronte.html

a cat walk

This was a non-interesting run.  I did, however, find a new way to get from Rhonda’s house to Dewey Park where I did a couple sets of pull-ups.  That’s the great thing about running long distances—even only a 30-minute round trip; you get to see a heap of the neighborhood.  I suppose I will need this kind of acclimation when I get to Moscow.  Some years ago, someone told me that they were going out on a ‘cat walk.’  They were newly arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan and in order to become aware of their surroundings they were doing to go around the block, and then another walk in a two-block perimeter, then three-block, etc.  Seems like a great way to get to know the area.

Roy G. Biv

Another run at my old course.  Music is truly amazing.  I plodded along listening to NPR stories about the Yemeni protestors, the Egyptian troubles, and a tunnel in the Afghan mountains that sound remarkably similar to a crumbling artery through a mountain to a ferry terminal in Albania.  Then, at the 16-minute mark, I stopped to put on some music.  I flipped to the playlists on my iPod and chose a running group of songs.  I spun the wheel a bit to choose one at random (no glasses so I can’t read the titles).  The song was ROY G BIV by They Might Be Giants.  The energy flowing through my muscles was dramatic.  I felt like I was hoping from stone to stone with the lightest of touches.

R is for Red
O is for Orange,
Y is for Yellow, and
G is for Green
B is for Blue,
I for Indigo, and
V is for Violet…and that spells Roy G. Biv
Roy G. Biv is a colorful man, and he proudly stands at the rainbow’s end
Roy G. Biv is a colorful man, and his name spells out the whole color spectrum

You’ll never see a unicorn,
But you’ll see a rainbow.
And inside every rainbow,
is the spectrum of light.

You’ll never see Roy G. Biv,
But he’s inside the rainbow.
Cause inside every rainbow,
Is the spectrum of light.

After TMBG, came Rubberband Man by the Spinners from 1976.  As I started the sprint came Should’ve Been a Cowboy by Toby Keith.  As much as I like the song, it’s not so great for inspirational running.  I guess I’ll have to take that one out of the running playlist.  The next one, though, Suburbia by the Pet Shop Boys would have been great for a sprint (I think).
I finished straining and popping, arms and legs screaming in agony only to finish in 58.11—nearly three seconds slower than my fastest.  But ain’t it great to be disappointed at 58 seconds when a few months ago, I wasn’t even sure that I could do it in under a minute.

Independence Day

This morning at 6:30, I ran the usual route to the high school and track.  It was a fun run—the boys were still asleep so I didn’t fiddle around.  Straight to the play structure at the elem school where I did pull-ups.  75 degrees, shirt filled with sweat, socks also wet and stinky.  I enjoyed listening to Marketplace Money and a story about teaching kids economics.

Ran at about 8:15 pm after a full day of work and a visit to Roger’s garden and to the kitties.  I was surprised that the 1/4 was so slow.  I ran the same distance as usual—to the school track and back with pull-ups at the elementary school.  This time, though, I was with the boys.  They were riding their bikes.  I ran the course in about 25 minutes because I didn’t fiddle around with the pull-ups, or with the sprint—I didn’t think pause to consider anything.  I was thinking about the boys all the time.  They kept me occupied.  I have been trying to get them accustomed to stopping, looking, riding straight, on the right side, etc…
I was still in my work clothes:  shorts with ground is dirt and fresh dirt, terribly brown socks, a black layer of dirt that had turned to mud on my legs…the usual.  I didn’t catch anyone’s eye so I’m not sure what they might have thought when they would see a dirty dude jogging with a couple kids on bikes.
Today’s results tell me that working a day does, in fact, wear a person out.  I was certainly not expecting to achieve such a poor result. The main thing is that I got a good work out.  Very tired, very sweaty…and a great time with the boys.  We got back to the house, I took a shower, they cleaned up their legos, they took showers, the usual stuff…but it was fun.

Raccoon River Valley Trail

With the boys on the trail…vey early—6:30 am.  We met their mother while she was running to Yale and back—12 miles or so.