You mean 10 to 20 won't pay the mortgage

File on my desk this morning: Guy hasn't made the payments on his mobile home in decently large midwest city. I called his employer to find out if the borrower made what he said he made on the loan application.

 

Me: "So, does blank work here - I'm trying to verify his employment and income."

 

Restaurant representative: "Uh, no... blank has been in federal penitentiary for a while now. That's why we fired him."

 

Me: "Oh, well, ok."

 

I guess you can't make your mortgage payments when you are doing hard time.

I hate the new Brooks Adrenalines

Let me start this post about saying this: I am ending my relationship with Brooks Adrenaline.

There.

I hate the new models. Hate. Hate. Hate. I loved the GT9s. I hate the GT10s. Hate.

I know. Hate is a strong word. But I hate them, and more importantly, my body hates them.

See, last Sunday, on Jan. 31, after I just felt like trash during a 10-mile run and could barely average an 8:30 min/mile, I blamed my lack of nutrition for my sluggishness.

Then on Thursday, a 7-mile run in which my pace was 8:46 min/mile, I blamed my right knee on my problems.

But on Saturday, I had no knee problems, was well-rested, felt good. And over the last six miles of a 14-mile run, my pace was 8:30s after starting out the first 8 miles in 7:50 pace.

As Saturday's run went along, as Mile 9 turned into Mile 10 and so on, I noticed how hard my legs were working just to put one foot in front of the other, like I was running with bricks on my feet. And its not like my lungs were working very hard. Its like I was walking, but could do nothing to go any faster.

When I first began running in 2004, I ran in Brooks Beast and as I became more efficient, the support in the Beast became too much and my legs were always fighting my shoes.

Well, that's kind of how it felt on Saturday. Two weeks ago, running 7:30 miles was effortless and breezy. On this day, 8:30 miles were a struggle, and as the run finished up Waller Street in East Austin, I got on my toes and tried to run out the last mile and the best I could do (without causing any cardiovascular stress) was an 8:37 mile.

So, I averaged a pedestrian 8:06 min/mile over the entire 14-mile run on a flat course around Town Lake and my legs felt beat up and achy and stiff from running in the Adrenaline 10s. (Just a few weeks earlier, I ran 7:20 pace over 14 miles on a hilly course and felt like I could have run five more miles in the old Adrenalines). Its like I was using muscles in my legs I'd never used before and they were revolting because of the new Adrenalines.

Anyway, I popped up this morning eager to figure out if my sluggishness was because of the new Adrenalines or some other leg malady. I laced up my old Adrenalines, the GT9s, which have well over 200 miles on them, and went out for a 10-mile run around Town Lake. My legs were still hurting from Saturday's run - and after taking 9:06 to finish the first mile, I thought, "uh-oh."

But, soon, my legs started to feel like themselves again, and I did each of the remaining 9 miles in paces that ranged from 7:21 to 7:53. The weird thing is, and follow me if you can, throughout most of the run, my Adrenaline 9 leg muscles were interfering with my Adrenaline 10 leg muscles. Got that? Weird, I know. I'd say it wasnt until about Mile 6 until I rid my legs of their Adrenaline 10 habits, when my toe off and midfoot landing began to fit the Adrenaline 9s I was wearing.

Crazy, right? Well, I'm not wearing the Adrenaline 10s anymore. Too stiff. Too much support. I wish Brooks would have just left well enough alone. I'm going to wear my Adrenaline 9s until they are shot, and I've ordered another pair of 9s online. After that, I'm either going to where a Brooks shoe with a little less support or switch to Asics.

But I'm done with the new Adrenalines.

Forced base-building

What makes a stiff knee stiffer? Not running for three days.

 

I hadnt run since Sunday. Deliberately took Monday off. And Tuesday off. Was going to run Wednesday but it was running. So I had to, had to run Thursday or I felt I was going to turn to mush.

 

My right knee, which I twisted a week before the 3M Half Marathon, is really really stiff and sore and all this inactivity made it cry - no, make that made me cry - "uncle' Thursday morning. The first few miles were brutal, just brutal. I started at Zilcher park, ran down Barton Springs, through Town Lake and past the Austin American Statesman to Riverside.

 

By then, I'd run three miles and my average pace was about 9:20 or so and I just was not feeling it whatsoever. Soon, though, my knee warmed up a little - and I was able to run closer to 8:00 min/mile pace... By then, though, the seven-mile run was over and I hopped my soggy ass in the car and drove home to get ready for work.

 

I guess the one good thing about my last two (slow) runs is that I'm base-building. Woohoo.

Bonking on a 10-mile run

In the two and half years I've been a father, I think I've done a pretty good job of not letting life interfere with my running. Outside of Noah's first week on this planet, I've not missed a run for any reason that had to do with me being a dad.

But I do find myself missing many meals when its my turn to keep Noah - its hard to cook for yourself and entertain a two-year-old at the same time. Often, I find myself eating before or after I have Noah. That kind of eating habit caught up to me on my Sunday run.

I had Noah from 10 am to 2. Before I picked him up, I had a cup of coffee from Starbucks and a cranberry scone. When I dropped him off, I bought groceries and had a Cliff Bar. At 4:30, having had less than 500 calories the entire day, I went out for a 10-mile run.

Two blocks into the run, I was like, "What am I doing?" I rallied somewhat as my body used up the final sources of carbs I had in me, but by Mile 5, I was pre-bonking, and by Mile 6, I was officially bonking. Maintaining an 8:30 min/mile was all the sudden very hard to do, and I was flirting with 9:00 min/mile pace for much of the last three miles.

I think two things were at play here. 1) I was in a calorie deficit before the run began. 2) The night before I had a cheesy lasagna from Macaroni Grill. (I think my sluggishness had more to do with the dairy than the lack of calories - but in combination, my legs never had a chance.)

I know from past runs that me and dairy do not get along. So, before my 4:30 run Sunday, I hadnt eaten anything tangible in 18 hours and what I had eaten was dairy. During the run, I never felt stressed cardio-vascularwise (is that a word?), but I felt very sluggish, especially mentally. It's like my mind would not recruit enough muscle fibers to run like I'm used to running. I wasn't breathing hard, I just didn't feel like running. At. All.

Today's splits:

1 -9:34
2 - 8:17
3 - 8:08
4 - 7:54
5 - 8:43
6 - 8:16
7 - 8:36
8 - 8:54
9 - 8:35
10 - 8:57
10.3 - 3:04

Easy running until Valentine's Day

I've run twice since the 3M half marathon last Sunday: 7 miles Wednesday and 8 miles Thursday. Both times around Austin's Town Lake, and both times I stayed right around 8:00 min/mile pace. No need in getting crazy because I've got another half marathon coming up on February 14, the Austin Half Marathon, which will be on a much more challenging course.

 

Tomorrow (Saturday morning) a group of us are running the Austin Half marathon course. I like having an idea of all the ins and outs of a course before I run it, so I am definitely looking forward to that run.

 

Health-wise, I'd say I'm about 90 percent. I twisted my knee a week before 3M and it is still a little crazy, especially when I run downhill. Yet it held up at 3M, which was mostly a downhill course.

 

I don't really have a goal for this next half marathon. I need 1:30 to qualify for the New York Marathon, though I don't think I will try for a 1:30 just yet, unless, of course, I'm at Mile 10 and things are going beyond my wildest dreams, then I'd go for it.

 

Instead, I think I'll try to run somewhere around 1:33 or better, then maybe run a half marathon in the late spring and try to nail New York then.