Nipple Anecdotes

I was corresponding with Mike Roche about a few first time marathoner tips and I mentioned the bloody nipples thing that is so painful to see on guys. Here is his response - I thought it was hilarious!

"I appreciate your nipple anecdotes, better to be forewarned! After the 15 mile run, I didn't initially feel anything, but the next day I realized for like the first time in my life that I even had nipples - because they hurt! So I have been doing the petroleum jelly thing on them too for the longer runs."

Witness to a Bar Fight

The chances of witnessing a bar fight drastically increase when you run at the 8:30 pm time as opposed to the 5:30 am time. I did not actually witness the fight, but I did witness the police showing up at Carline Cafe in Avalon and I overhead this snipet, "Well, when the magistrate gets here, he is not going to want to hear..." I should have slowed down a little to get the rest of the sentence, but the anticipation did help me keep up my tempo pace. Since I was doing an out and back, I was hoping I could get back to the same spot by the time the magistrate showed up. Alas, when I got back to the spot everything was dissolved.

Successful Sprints

I went up to Schenley Park since they have the 1k trail around the track so I thought it would be perfect for the 1k, 2k, 1k, 1k w/ 400m rest intervals. Here are my splits: 4:27, 9:08, 4:44 and 4:12. Guess which one I saw my old track coach and he ran half with me. It was so fantastic to see him in the running mode again and he very naturally gave me coaching tips (like run on the track, not asphalt and not really the hardened trails). I'm not sure if I can follow that for the 9 mile tempo, but maybe part of it... He also introduced me to some of the ladies in his track club as I might try to connect with them after the MCM. They seem very nice and their only requirement was that I didn't run with a purse. Oh yeah, it happened... So I'm off to the PT tonight to find if there is some remedy for my ankle. (Oh AND my coach said that I have plenty of time to heal up before MCM!)

A Test Drive

I finally got a bike this weekend, so I took it out for a test ride this morning. It was still dark enough that I couldn't really see what gear I was changing into and I was under strict instruction to keep low numbers with low numbers, high numbers with high numbers and no extremes in the middle, so I didn't want to experiment too much. It was also very windy and a little misty-rainy outside, so I just did a short ride. Look forward to testing it out more!

Debo's Longest Run

Saturday Deborah and I headed out to the Montour Trail to do our 16 mile long run. We had forgotten that the IKEA half marathon was being held that day, so we had many race officials tell us to get off of the course. We used the excuse that we were cheering for folks and that appeased some of them. We did have to stay off of the course for a little while in the middle of our run, but then we hopped back on until the top runners caught back up to us. We neared the finish line among the top ten - quite fun to be at the front of the pack. Overall, I thought the run went well. I could definitely tell that it was the longest run yet of our training, but that's why we're training, right?

A Steamy Long Run on Bayshore Blvd.

My 12 mile long run this weekend was done in steamin' hot Tampa, FL. I know Amber is running in hot weather and what she might describe as a dry sauna, but let me tell you that Tampa is a wet sauna. As soon as you walk out of an air-conditioned building you are slammed with a steamy wall of hot air and you take a deep breath because it is hard to actually breathe! I woke up at 5:30 am (after only three alcoholic beverages the day before, topped with too much time in the sun and about four and a half hours of sleep) to get out the door while it was still dark outside. The darkness helped slightly, but it just meant that the sun wasn't beating down on you; its not like it made it actually "cool" or anything like that. I ran down Bayshore Blvd. into the city and explored a few different dead ends and then ran back up Bayshore towards MacDill Air Force Base. I really only ran by time (and I counted a ten minute breakfast break at Starbucks that was imperative since I couldn't turn on the lights in the kitchen to get anything before the run b/c there were 4 people sleeping on the floor) so I don't know if I quite got 12 miles, but at least I know that I ran for 2+ hours and sweated at least as much as I normally would in Pittsburgh!