2009 Torrington Road Race

Congrats on an excellent race, Ryan! Is that your Torrington Road Race PR? I also did the race and set my PR (nice weather!) Unfortunately, I didn't see you so I didn't realize that you and your brother were at the race until I saw your names in the results. It's good to see that the tick bite isn't holding you back. One question...where was Dan?

What I've been doing

I took another week off from running to drive my car across the country to Seattle. I visited Portland too. In nine days on the road, I covered 6,200 miles.

I'm back to running now, trying to maintain my fitness. I don't have any plans to run a race, but I'd like to make some. Can I get anyone who still reads this blog to commit to a race this summer/this coming fall?

I did a yoga class for the first time about three weeks ago. I might do it again tonight. It's only $5/class. The class is held at a local bike shop. Every Wednesday, after the shop has closed, bikes, displays, etc. are moved to the perimeter of the shop to make room for about 15 of us. The class is 60 minutes and challenging. It's not simply the holding of various positions. There's a lot of positions, they're held for about 10 to 15 seconds, and then you "flow" to the next one. It's very challenging if you don't have the strenghth in your legs and core. You think you're in shape? Try it.

marathon training suspended due to Lyme and/or Ehrlichiosis

I had a tick embedded in my upper back in mid-May. It wasn't engorged. As I understand it, a tick is only engorged once it begins to grow on the host. The tick in my back had not yet begun to grow, but it was in there good. I have no idea what kind of tick it was, but I took two 100-mg capsules/tablets of Doxycycline the day after the tick was removed from back and then forgot about it. Then my running times got progressively slower, and one time I had to stop and walk. In hindsight, I had a low-grade fever in the evenings. Then came two Tuesdays ago: June 9th. During the afternoon, I became dizzy and fatigued. I also developed an ache in the groin area. While walking to the train that evening, I had to stop twice due to extreme dizziness and fatigue. I nearly passed out. I got on the train, took it to Guilford and went right to the ER. They thought I was anemic. A blood test showed normal levels. My Lyme test is still pending. I saw a nurse practitioner on Friday of that week, and she prescribed Doxycycline 2x/day for 28 days. I took it for a week and felt no better, so I saw an M.D. yesterday. He thinks I have Ehrlichiosis. He said the medicine won't kick in for about a week with Ehrlichiosis, whereas with Lyme it kicks in within a few days--one reason why he thinks I don't have Lyme. He said that I'll feel shitty for about a month.

Overtraining

Fifteen minutes into my four-mile run on Wednesday, I had to stop. My legs would just not go. I could barely walk the rest of the way home. I skipped my planned six-mile run on Thursday. I took yesterday off. I felt pretty good today. Eleven point one miles at 8:55 pace. I had no appetite last week. Not sure why. I imagine that had something to do with my lethargy. After Tuesday's run, I didn't even want to run on Wednesday...and certainly not on Thursday after Wednesday. I didn't want to think about running.

Week 8 -- toughest week thus far

i did 33 miles this week, including a 13-mile long run yesterday. tuesday's run was by far the most painful; thursday's: the most difficult to finish--a mile in and i wanted to just stop. my long run went ok, though i didn't have my normal bounce and finished with little in reserve. today's run went ok. my legs feel really, really strong. thankfully, week 9 is a recovery week, including a long run of only 10 or 11 miles. i'll do 15 or 16 the following week. looking back at my week 8 long run of 2007, of which i did about 13 miles, as well, my pace was about 10 seconds slower, but i noted that i felt extremely strong finishing. i think i might have pushed too hard the past two weeks, but i'm glad i caught it when i did. i'm going to go completely on feel this week and recover the right way. cheers. //ryan

people's state forest -- barkhamsted, ct

I did my long run here on Saturday and woke up on Sunday with a tick in my upper back. My mother irresponsibly went to town on it and pulled it off in several pieces. We're pretty sure that she got it all. My doctor called in a prescription for two doses of an antibiotic. There's a Summary of Tick Testing Results for 2008 on the CT Dept. of Agriculture's website. In Barkamsted, one of four ticks tested positive for Lyme Disease.

Marathon Training -- Week 6

I had a breakthrough in fitness this week. It seems like once you break 20 miles per week for a few weeks, the gains are huge. I did a 5 plus mile training run tonight at 8:45 pace. I haven't been able to run this pace at that distance as comfortably as I did tonight since the latter weeks of my first marathon buildup. Going into this buildup, I must have been fitter than I was going into my first buildup. I bet the shoes--Nike Lunar Trainer+--have something to do with it, too. I have much stronger feet. My turnover is solid. Everything feels even, comfortable, and I'm up on my toes and flying the whole time. I'm going for eleven miles this weekend. I've made a vow not to race during this buildup. I think that it really threw off my first marathon buildup. I did three races and it only further injured my foot. I know that my foot is healed now, but I don't want to jeopardize this solid buildup thus far.

Marathon Training -- Week 4

I don't know if it's that I'm just fitter or not holding back due to an injured foot this time around, but I'm training at about a minute per mile faster than I did two years ago. I'm beating up my legs pretty good. My feet feel fine. I've gone back and looked at my early marathon training of two years ago and noticed a pattern of nagging aches and pains in my left knee and right shin. I also struggled with a sore right hip. After about 6 weeks of training, all of these issues worked themselves out. I don't have any of those this time around, hence my beating up on my legs a bit more than I probably should. I want to be stronger in the last four miles of this marathon. My pace dropped off two and a half minutes after 22 miles of my first marathon. I don't want that to happen in SF. I want to run an even-paced marathon. I don't know if it's going to be in sensible pacing or preparing my legs for the last few miles that will allow me to do this. I have to figure this out.

Good Article About Training and Improving

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/health/nutrition/23best.html?em

I thought this was a good article. Makes me think I need to get my lazy ass on some kind of a training program again.

Boston Marathon

My predictions, Tune and Merga, finished 2nd and 1st, respectively. Tune collapsed at the finish. Goucher (2:32) and Hall (2:09) both finished 3rd. At last, podium spots for Americans. I really thought that Goucher had this, but her pushing over the last five miles apparently took a lot out of her. When the lead pack dropped Hall, I knew he wasn't out of it. He battled back but didn't have enough to outrun Merga and Rono. The guy's an aerobic monster and showed some real stones beating up on four of five Kenyans. Unfortunately, Merga's stones have stones, so...

Judging by this 8-mile tempo run, Hall may win Boston. Does anyone know if it will be televised?

This a test from my iPhone.