June Numbers, and my First Race in over Four Years

June was a busy and memorable month. I continued to slightly increase my running mileage, I went to L.A., ran my first race in more than four years, and I met several celebrities.

First things first, the numbers:

Runs:     13
Miles:    75.2
Races: 1 (Summertime 10k, Santa Monica, CA - 46:19. 4th/50 overall, 1/3 AG)
Bike Rides: 5
Miles:     143.8

I took a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles the weekend of June 24/25th to attend an event I was invited to (more about that, below). I was fortunate to have a running & riding friend who lives in Redondo Beach, who invited me to stay with him and his wife. He retired young, and now trains daily (multiple times per day, usually), so needless to say, he's in amazing shape. The day I arrived there, he took me on a bike ride into the Palos Verdes area. We stuck with moderate climbs and avoided the intense hills. The next morning, we ran a small, casual race in Santa Monica. He ran the half marathon, while I chose the 10k.

Tom (left), with yours truly. Tom killed the half, with a 1:34!

It was a flat, fast course (out and back; twice for me, 3x for the half runners) on a paved trail next to the beach. My goal was to break 48 minutes. Much to my surprise, I came in at 46:19 (7:28 pace), good for fourth place overall. As I finished, someone handed me a 3rd place medal. I didn't learn I actually finished 4th until later in the day. My condolences to the man who missed out on his 3rd place medal ;-)

I smiled in nearly every race photo! I'm demented, obviously.

On Monday, Tom took me on a beach tour bike ride, up the South Bay. We ended up riding 40 miles.

It was a fun, active weekend, and Tom and his wife were very gracious to have me stay with them.

Now, to backtrack a little. An event that took place Sunday afternoon was the reason I flew to L.A. in the first place.

I have a side business, doing people and pet portraits (www.colinhayesart.com)…in case you know anyone who might be interested ;-)

A few weeks after Don Rickles died, I decided to draw his portrait, on a whim.

It turned out well, so I sent a message through the Don Rickles website with a link to the portrait, thinking I’d probably never hear back. Well, I did get a reply from his publicist, who showed the portrait to Don’s wife Barbara. She loved it and wanted a copy. Then, she decided to display the portrait as a tribute at his private memorial service in LA, and she invited me. There’s no way I could turn that down.

There were many celebs there. Several of them were admiring the portrait, taking pictures of it, and having their pics taken with it. At the reception, I felt a little lost, but eventually Barbara invited me to her personal table (with her family & close friends), and she would make a point to introduce me to each celebrity that would come up to talk to her. I handed out several promo booklets to them, too.

Don’s manager, Tony Oppedisano (“Tony O”) was also Frank Sinatra’s manager (and his best friend). He regaled me with crazy Sinatra stories more than once. I’m also now in business with him, selling prints of the portrait, with 50% of the proceeds going to their charity. He’s a riot and quite a character! Very NY/Italian Showbiz Manager stereotype, but a good guy. Every time he came up to me, I had just finished a glass of wine, and he'd say "What's the matter? Every time I see you, you're dry!"

With the lovely & gracious Barbara Rickles

With Don's manager, Tony Oppedisano ("Tony O")

Some of the celebs I either saw or met: Bob Newhart, Regis Philbin, Al Roker, Kathy Griffin, Sharon Lawrence, Jeff Ross, Tony Danza, Suzanne Somers, John McEnroe, Steve Lawrence, Al Michaels, Elliott Gould, Bob Saget, John Stamos, and more.

It was a surreal experience. Barbara went out of her way to be gracious to me. It’s a weekend I’ll never forget. She's commissioning me to draw her French bulldog, Chauncey, along with their daughter's dog and, Bob Newhart's dog, as a Christmas present from her to his family.

So, a crazy month, indeed!

As I write this, July is well underway, and I'm trying to increase the running miles even more. My left knee is feeling a bit squishy, so I'll be monitoring that closely.

We're pushing 100°f here in Spokane this weekend, so all runs and rides have been early, out of necessity. Here's hoping everyone avoids heat exhaustion the rest of the summer!

It's Already April???

How can the first quarter of this year already be behind us? Wow!

Here are some March numbers, for any fellow stat geeks:

Runs: 10                                             (YTD: 22)

Miles: 45.6                                         (YTD: 90.6)

Rides (trainer): 4                              (YTD: 22)

Miles: 79.4                                         (YTD: 353)

Rides (outdoors): 2                          (YTD: 2)

Miles: 53.5                                         (YTD: 53.5)

Swims: 2 (Wow. More below)           (YTD: 12)

Yards: 2,000                                      (YTD: 22,600)

I'm still plugging along with my training, although my desires have shifted just a bit. Maybe I should say, my preferences are affecting my training.

First and foremost, I'm a pure runner at heart. It's what I've always loved to do. My body has stopped me in my tracks several times, but it's in my blood. My current "triathlon training" is built on the idea that I am no longer able to "just" run. One could also say that I'm training for a triathlon because I feel like I should. I'm not saying I do NOT want to do a triathlon, but it's certainly not a burning desire.

And that lack of burning desire centers, mostly, on swimming. I LOVE running, I ENJOY cycling, and I TOLERATE swimming. And that's being generous. I'm not sure I'd go as far as LOATHE, but it depends on the day.

I had a couple of really rough swims lately. The last one, I lasted 5 1/2 minutes and 300 yards before bailing on the workout. I was having trouble breathing, was dizzy and just didn't feel right. But even the swim before that was below par. I imagine some of this is mental, but I think I've been fighting some sort of respiratory infection lately, which seems to affect my swimming more than running or cycling.

I did manage to finally get the new bike outdoors twice toward the end of March. I rode 18.3 miles, finishing up a pretty tough hill, into a headwind, and 35.2 miles, ending with quad cramps in both legs on a gradual climb (had to call my wife for a rescue 2 miles from home, as the legs were done).

The running has been up and down, but surprisingly a bit more up than down lately. I spent a week in Maui in mid March, and managed 3 early morning runs that week, all close to 5 miles, and all close to 8:30/mi pace. Granted, they were flat as a pancake, but that pace was still a challenge. I've gradually increased my "long" run to 6 miles, running that either twice or 3 times so far. Today, I decided to push the pace and see where my fitness is. I ran 5k (3.1 miles) at exactly an 8:00/mi pace. It wasn't easy! My left knee and right hip are always an issue, but lately, they've both held up during runs, then ached between runs. I'm trying to get better about stretching and using the foam roller. I did both today right after my fast run.

So, I guess the question I need to ask myself is, do I move ahead with triathlon-specific training, doing the swim training I need, even though I'm not digging it, or do I focus more on mixing running and cycling and see where that leads? I had my sights set on the Troika Triathlon, on May 20th, but even if I get back to the pool in a serious way, I still don't think I'll feel ready to spend $85 (or more, plus a wetsuit) on an event I'm not prepared for. They do have a duathlon option, but I don't even feel ready for that!

There are more local triathlons later in the year, so I may wait to see what happens. If I can continue running (and increase the frequency and mileage) without too much pain, that will likely guide my ambitions.

But these days, I have to take each run/ride/swim one at a time, since I don't know what my body will do at any given moment.

Makes for some interesting training, that's for sure!

Be fit and have fun, my friends!

January Gone...Already?

It's hard to believe 1/12th of 2013 has already passed. In terms of running and fitness, it was a very good month.

Number-wise:

Runs: 23
Miles: 120.7 (5.25 miles/run average)
Time: 16:55:09 (8:24/mile average)
Races: 1 (45:36 @ Nookachamps 10k…not a good day)

I also joined a challenge on Facebook to do 20,000 pushups in 2013. I finished the month with 2800 pushups on 100 sets, which puts me on track for almost 33,000 pushups for the year. We'll see how long I can keep up that pace! I also did a lot of pullups, situps, dips and work with dumbbells. As usual, I got a little lazy with the stretching. I'll get better, I promise.

Back to the running. As I hinted at above, I ran one race in January. I didn't feel it was worth a race report. Why? Partially due to laziness, and partially because it was a very tough race. The course was the toughest 10k course I've run. There was a 3/4 mile long hill between miles 2 and 3, then another short but STEEP hill at mile 5. Not being in top shape (and because I was still fighting an upper respiratory bug), they both wiped me out and I coasted to the finish in a rather disappointing time. I even suffered my worst age group finish in a race EVER, percentage-wise, anyway (10th of 15).

But…lately my running has been going quite well. I'm training for another 10k (Feb. 23rd) and have managed to build my base back to over 30 miles per week, on currently 6 runs per week. I feel like I'm settling into a groove again. I feel a few little niggles from time to time, but no injury pain. Next week, I'll start introducing some speed work into my training…very cautiously. One of those niggles is my right hamstring, so I don't want to blow it out with some ill-informed repeats on the track.

I know I can't milk this "comeback" idea forever, but I still hesitate to say I'm all the way "back." I still haven't tested myself with any runs longer than a single ten miler. As I'm currently training for 5 & 10k's, I don't feel the need to. But I do hope to return to the half marathon distance by the end of this year, so I'll eventually get a healthy diet of double-digit runs…attempts, at least…later this year.

As I mentioned in my 2012 wrap-up post, I'm also doing the Seattle to Portland bike ride in July, so soon I'll be putting in quite a bit of time in the saddle. That'll affect my running, at least temporarily. That bums me out a little, since I'm really enjoying the running right now and would like to see if I can continue to improve and increase the volume. I'm sure, though, that swapping out some of those run miles with bike time won't do anything to hurt my fitness.

One month down, 11 to go. Onward!

Mini Milestones

Just a couple of quick things here to update those who wish to be updated:

• I just completed day 45 of my current running streak. For the most part, I've felt great during the streak. I've felt a few niggles here and there, but surprisingly less than I was feeling before the streak. I'm still only running 23-26 miles per week, but that's a good bit more than I was running earlier this year. So...the streak will continue until my body tells me otherwise.

• I just went over 100 miles running for a month for the first time since July of 2010. It's also an October PR (this was the only month in which I hadn't recorded at least 100 miles in a previous year. It also breaks my oldest standing monthly mileage PR, going back to...wait for it...October of 1983! Yes, I'm that old. And, yes, I'm that anal about running records.)

So, after two years of mostly complaining about injuries and how I wish I could run more, things are finally turning around. Why? I honestly don't know. I think it's a combination of things. My idea behind the streak was to slowly rebuild my base with a lot of short, slow runs, filling the gaps between my three 'real' runs per week. Since I can't run terribly long, I thought I'd run more frequently. It seems to be strengthening the muscles surrounding my injured area(s). Again, I still have days where the pain shows up pretty noticeably, but they're fewer, farther between, and more manageable. I'm also doing a lot more stretching, self-massaging, and icing (either with wraps or by taking ice baths. Which I enjoy. I'm sick, I know.)

All I can say is that it's working. For now, anyway. My next goal is to very gradually build up my long run (currently at 7-8 miles,) along with trying to bring my 5k time down even more.

Onward, my running friends!