Call me wet. For today’s Sunday run, the temperature was, well, temperate, in the mid-seventies. The humidity, though, was closing in on the 100% mark. Almost everyone was running with a water bottle today, even though we have water fountains along our route. Staying hydrated was paramount, as the shorts, shirts, socks and hats got thoroughly soaked with sweat.

The crew have been cranking up the miles. Tony ran 15.86 miles today, totally ignoring the Garmin master telling him to do the extra 0.14. I give him credit for not being a slave to the Garmin. Steve and Bryan also upped the distance, but I didn’t get their totals for today. My own approach has been to get the long runs in earlier in the training plan so I did 19 today, and glad to say, it was a good run, averaging a 9:15 pace.

We now have only ten weeks until Steamtown. Having run five marathons, I’m starting to detect a pattern. Sixteen weeks seems like a very long time to train. As the event gets closer, time, in spite of known physical laws, compresses, and seems to go by in chunks. I think our group is doing well, getting in the proper training, and each sticking to his plans. I can only wonder what it would be like to run in a dryer place, though. It takes two days for my shoes to dry. Well, that’s the way summer is here.

I hope everyone is enjoying watching the Olympics. London seems to have done an excellent job preparing, and the games are always exciting.

Frank

Andorra is a small country  in the Pyrenees, between Spain and France.  It’s namesake is a road in Philadelphia which rises up from the end of Forbidden Drive to Ridge Avenue, then leads to Harts Lane and a series of sharp hills before heading down to the Schuykill River Trail.  It made for a great training run for serious hill climbing and descending practice in a beautiful setting, a bit Hobbit-like in places, but definitely a valuable part of our path to Steamtown.  Our 14.7 mile route, mapped out on MapMyRun,  starts out with small hills, a bike path, and some areas of boardwalk over the Wissahickon Creek, leading up to Forbidden Drive.  Forbidden Drive runs along Wissahickon Creek, through the Wissahickon Gorge, an area of great natural beauty.  It wasn’t always so.  Early in the years of settlement of this area, it was filled with mills and taverns, but in 1868, the City of Philadelphia acquired 1800 acres of this area in order to preserve a clean water supply for the city, and demolished many of those mills and taverns.    The drive was banned to motorized traffic in 1899, hence the name.  No less a writer than Edgar Allan Poe described the area in an essay entitled “Morning on the Wissahiccon.”  It is a graveled, fairly wide road which curves along the Wissahickon Creek, with a stop mid-way at the one remaining Inn, the Valley Green Inn.  There, water fountains and restrooms are available for the many runners, cyclists, and walkers using the drive.  Our run continued on to the end of Forbidden Drive, where we headed left on Andorra Road and the start of the climbing.  Andorra climbs up to Park, for a quick right and steep uphill to a left on Church.  After crossing Ridge Pike, we headed along Harts Lane.  Harts Lane has several hills, fairly steep, which gave us some good downhill training as well.  The legs take a beating on the downhills.  They want to move fast, and trying to compromise between a controlled descent and taking advantage of gravity leads to strains on the quads, knees and ankles, and shins.  The organizers of the Steamtown Marathon make a big point of needing to practice downhills, and stress not going out too fast at the beginning of the race.  Naturally, for training, one must head uphill in order to go down.

The run finishes along the Schuylkill River Trail (SRT), heading back to Manayunk.  We had energy left for one more long climb, so we turned up Shawmont at the end of the paved portion of the SRT, making the quick U-turn at Umbria and following its hilly course until it ultimately dumped us on Main Street in Manayunk.  Anyone who has run the Philly Marathon will find this last bit very familiar, and can recall the crowds of locals cheering you on as you run up Main Street, having made the last turn on the way back to the Philadelphia Art Museum.  Our run stopped well short of that, ending where we started, at the Manayunk Diner.  There, eleven of our group got cleaned up and presentable, and sat down to a breakfast we rarely get to enjoy, with omelets, fried eggs, sausage, corned beef hash, pancakes, and home fries.  Those who had not done the run before, Tony and Brian to name two, were impressed with the run, and want to do it again.  Those of us who had done it before, also found it exhilarating, a good, hard, challenging run.  We’ll be out there in another few weeks to run it again.

Frank

After my long run last Sunday, a week and a couple days ago, I sat down on a bench to take off my sneaks and socks.  I wrung out my socks, and about a cup of water hit the steamy sidewalk.  The last week has been extraordinarily hot and humid, and when we finish a run of any length, we are as wet with sweat as if we had stood in the shower with our running clothes on.  The Body Glide doesn’t protect much, and you get cuts and abrasions from the material of your shorts at your waistline and other areas.  But something else has been going on, acclimation.  I think summer running has its challenges, but once you accept that you can’t go as fast as in cooler weather, and that you need to drink enormous volumes of water to stay hydrated, it gets fun and rewarding.  Last Saturday, Brandon and I ran a 7 miler with passing rain showers, and the rain was cool, not cold.  It felt good, and we didn’t get any wetter than if we had no rain.

This was a long week, miles-wise for me, totalling over 44.  My plan for getting in longer runs early in the training seems to be working.  I’m concentrating on slower long runs, even pacing, and  conditioning of the legs for endurance.

It wasn’t a particularly interesting week for wildlife.  We saw the common animals hanging out, geese by the flock, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and the dead raccoon on Coles Mill.  No fox or turtle this week.

There is news on the beer front.  Saturday, I bottled my Königesz-Hefeweizen, a simple German wheat beer made with Canadian wheat and German barley malt, Tettnanger hops, Bavarian yeast, and South Jersey tapwater.  An early taste test showed great promise, and the brew is a light amber with good clarity.  We need to wait about four weeks to start drinking it.

The heat will continue this week, although the weekend may be a bit milder.  We have plans Sunday for a Manayunk-Forbidden Drive loop, a fourteen mile run with a big hill in the middle.  It should be good.

Frank

Today at work, later in the afternoon, I found myself dropping my head and taking micronaps while trying to finish some desk work. It can be pretty humorous to bolt upright and see a line of m’s (mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm) on the email I was composing. I think it is also a sign I need some rest.

Saturday, 7/7/12, I ran with Brandon, club pres. and my training advisor, for our usual 7 mile loop. It has a nice long hill around mile 5, which makes for a good muscle building exercise.

Two days ago, Sunday morning, I did my second long run, sticking to my personal plan for getting used to going the distance leg cramp free. It was another warm and humid day, and I started at 6:10 AM. After a five mile loop, already soaked with sweat, I stopped home for a quick change of running shorts and to take on some fluids. I’ve been drinking E.F.S (Electrolyte Fuel System) sports drink, given to me by a cycling friend and said to help prevent muscle cramps. I then proceeded to run 13 more miles, carrying a water bottle with me, taking two gels during the run, and finishing with an average of 9:30 per mile. I recognize this is not a fast pace, but my goal right now is to go the long distance without cramping, and to teach the muscles endurance. Towards the end of this run, I was starting to cramp up in my right calf, so I cut out the last mile and contented myself with 17. Afterwards, I felt good, though, and I think it was valuable training. I had another intimate encounter with wildlife, this time with a large, furry groundhog, which, I’ve learned, is a type of Marmot. As I went around the back of a building to discard a gel pack, the critter was a couple of meters away, staring at me. He scurried off, only to stop a bit farther away and turn to look at me again. One can imagine what he was thinking.

Monday was a day for the bridge. Two residents at my hospital and I did our run from the hospital, across the Ben Franklin Bridge, down and around the Race Street pier on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, and back across the bridge. It’s a great run, with beautiful views, a nice breeze and hills! In both directions.

As I mentioned at the start, I am tired today. I didn’t join my fellow club members at the No Frills Tuesday night race, nor at the Irish Mile for a beer, and I feel some remorse because of that. But, I needed the rest.

Frank

Last Sunday, July 1, the four Musketeers, also known as Bryan, Tony, Steve and Frank, spent the morning hours facing heat stroke and dehydration, as we did our usual 13 mile run.  We’ve moved our start time up to 7AM for our summer Sunday runs for good reason.  It gets awfully hot out there as the sun rises.  The humidity drains you and the stillness of the air doesn’t make for very good natural cooling, either.  But, we slogged on and did our training run, finishing at a respectable pace considering the heat.  Afterwards, we and our fellow SJACers cooled and re-hydrated in the air-conditioned local Starbucks.  I find it takes a lot of liquid to bring my tank back up to normal after a run like that, several liters at least.

Monday, I did my “recovery run”, a 6 mile run over the Ben Franklin Bridge from Camden, down and around a pier on the Delaware, then back across the bridge.  I’m not sure of the value of a recovery run, or whatever you want to call it.  I always feel a bit stiff and awkward starting out on my Monday run following a long Sunday run, but the muscles get going and then it becomes just a usual run.  The fact that going over the bridge gives a hill and downhill in both directions makes for a little training bonus.

Wednesday, July 4, was a day for cross-training.  In addition to the scheduled October 7 marathon, I am also doing a four-day cycling tour in the Green Mountains of Vermont, in August, called the Vermont Challenge.  Anything called a “challenge” requires a little prep.  So, part of my training requires some cycling.  Co-members of SJAC, Ed and Michele, and a colleague from work, Mike, and I did a 55 mile ride from Lloyd Hall in Philadelphia to Valley Forge, including a loop around the park which has a number of demanding hills.  Glad to say, we all did quite well, and stopped in Manayunk for a bit of lunch at Bella Trattoria.  In Philly, on our return, the Ben Franklin Parkway was already jammed with people out to celebrate the Fourth, and participate in Philly’s big, free party.  There were big displays set up by Ford, the NBA and Wawa which dominated the parkway.  There were also little vendors as seen in the photo below.  Musicians were set to perform, jugglers wandered about, and there were many families enjoying it all.  The famous fireworks arising from the art museum grounds would come later in the evening.  But, it is still hot and humid, with little chance for relief at least in the next several days, so I guess we’ll just live with it.

On the BFP, July 4, 2012. What good are cheese curds if they are not fried?

Some of our faithful followers may have been curious why no post from Frank for a week.  When last I wrote, I was coming home from a nice cruise in the Southern Caribbean.  Then, as soon as I got home, BAM!, I was on call.  This past week was very busy and demanding, but not so demanding I couldn’t eke out a bit over thirty miles on the road.  Monday a week ago, I did my BF Bridge run, making it a 6 mile round trip.  Tuesday and Wednesday I started too early at work and ended way to late to consider running.  I thought I might fall asleep at the running shoe, or whatever the equivalent of falling asleep at the wheel would be.  Thursday evening, starting around 7:15, a nice 10 miler including the “hills o’ Haddonfield” as I like to call them, for the first half, then the Grove Street to Park Blvd. loop.  Friday was another late day at work.  Saturday and Sunday I had to make rounds, but Saturday evening, I did the same 10 mile loop again, and Sunday, a 5 miler in the afternoon.  Voilà, 31 miles.

Now I am putting together my training plan for October 7.  Due to my sometimes, uh, difficult schedule at work, I am designing my own plan rather than going with the packaged variety available on Runner’s World or a variety of other sources.  My goal in terms of success will be first, to finish without my legs cramping up.  That has been my bugaboo each of my previous marathons.  I think I can accomplish this by including long runs and hills mixed in each month for the next three months.  Long means in the 18-20 mile category, to get the leg muscles used to keeping on for that long a time.  So, this Sunday will be my first 18 miler.  I already got the hill workout in this month, in La Romana, Dominican Republic, slogging up  2.5 miles of rather steep climb in the midday heat and humidity.  Monday, the standard run will be the BF Bridge, although yesterday I did an equivalent up in Highland Park, NJ.  My Wednesday runs will be a 10 miler.  Thursday, 800’s at the track, assuming I get off from work at a reasonable time.  Saturday morning will be variable, but the plan is to do a 7 plus run.  Tuesday will be a rest day, and Friday depends on the work schedule.

My second goal is to make a PR, under 3:44:14.  My third goal is to qualify for Boston, meaning under 3:40.  I’m just putting my plan together, but have a good idea of the structure.  I will refine it in the next week or so.

Happy running!  Frank