Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Topsy Turvy Tuesday

4:40am, Tuesday is usually a fast day, time to get up and get some nice speed in the 50 degree weather..
Scratch that, I overslept. I apparently turned off both of my alarms and went back to sleep this morning. I woke up at 5:35 by my wife and she said: Declan, aren't you supposed to run today? (I love that this was the first thing she said) I was all sorts of confused. I thought it was Saturday at first, but then realized it was Tuesday.  Do I have time for a run.. maybe 3, but I was schedule for nine today.  No dice, but still plenty of time to get to work. I'll try to run later I told myself before I got rungry (run+angry from not running)

I get ready and leave my unit and am about to leave the building when I realize I forgot my CTA pass..so much for catch the bus that was coming! Go back and find it, wait another 10 or so minutes and leave.  Next bus is late and very full, it didn't have enough space to even stop at the last two stops before going express on Lake Shore Drive.

I took a half day today to do daddy day care as my wife has a non toddler friendly appointment this afternoon. I got home with enough time to sneak in my run while the baby napped and before my wife had to leave. Score!

I sported my Boston Marathon New Balance M890v3s (see here and here ) for the first time not on a treadmill, I'm going to rotate them in on my non recovery run days and when its not raining until my M890v2s are done.

I was a bit happy to be able to run in the low 60s and partly sunny skies I must say, but a few things I didn't enjoy:
  • I felt like a stranger running at a different time, nobody was training on the art of nodding and waving. Did I betray my 5am crew?
  • I didn't have my eating time down for this run. My last snack was at 7:30am, and I ran at 12:30pm. I definitely felt the lack of energy after a few miles, which surprised me as I usually run on an empty stomach in the morning. 
  • There were a couple annoying runners, one whom I will describe in a moment.
I learned one lesson today, even if you feel like you can speed up during your warm up miles, don't.  I ran my warm up miles at ~7:15 minute miles, I meant to do 8:15-8:30. I didn't think anything of it since I felt great. 5 miles in I was noticing I wasn't hitting my times, by a good 10 seconds. Maybe a couple were GPS floating, but it was pretty consistent. Overall my time was quicker, but the effort part of my run was off. Just like I tell myself to respect a recovery run, respect warming up.

Now in the mornings I usually give a shout out to my favorite runners. Today, a wag of my finger to you mr annoying chicken wing doof!

In the last mile and a half of my run (cooling down, so 8-8:30 per minute at this point), I pass this guy, who I would like to call a Bro 2.0, shaved head, something shaved into it, he was walking, a little sweaty. Wearing cotton (warning sign) and long shorts. I think nothing of this. Last mile of my jog at this point, I'm relaxing and he has speed up and goes by me.. whatever I'm not going to leave my slow down for that guy...but his form, oh so bad. He is listening to music and has his elbows up like a chicken flapping its wings. Never seen this before, so much wasted energy doing that, that can't be natural. I start to get a little peeved, my inner reserves of energy say, USE US! Don't let him leave here like that. NO! I'm not that type of runner. But then he does it, he does some sort of two handed victory arm/hand pumps in the air. Not sure why this was bothering me, but I didn't want to look at it any longer. He is about 50 feet in front of me, I think it through and need about 25 seconds to pass him and no see this display any longer. I start my pace back up when he turns off the path and loops around to the lake... ugh. Well I guess it was for the better.  I know I'm not much of a better person for wanting to do that.

Do you ever have runners you see outside who you just HATE to see go around you? You see their stride too long, their build too big, or form too bad that you know overtime they'll fade and you will show your true training results? Or is this just me?

How do you deal with days where you oversleep and miss your run if you run in the morning?

4 comments:

  1. There are so many runners with bad form in the after work crowd. I just cringe at times. I also sometimes have fun with runners who try and pass me. If you look at me I don't look like much of a runner, I'm deceptive like that. So you get these dude cruising along listening to music and I'll catch and start to pass them and they look at me then start to speed up as to not let me pass... well I just slowly increase my pace and more than once I've caused one of these guys to just flat out stop their run and give up because they couldn't keep up with me. I know its a bit mean on my part, but these guys are trying to be hotshots and deserve it.

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  2. I often see people that make me go "WTF???" when I see their form. On Monday I had one guy chatting with me at the water fountain about how he needed a 7 min pace for the marathon and he was off by about 15 seconds. I told him that he had LOTS of time before the marathon but he just kept talking about that 7 Min pace. Yea... I saw him walking twice after that and I passed him. Maybe he was trying to impress me (I don't know) but I could help but wonder how the hell he had a 7:15 pace when he was walking that much...

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  3. I feel you! I try really hard to not make everyone pass me a challenge to my manhood, but once in awhile someone just ticks me off! And its always on my recovery day where if I push it, I know I pay for it the next day, ugh

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  4. Sounds like you had an admirer! Maybe he can do a single 7 minute mile and then 12s? Its like giving your 2 mile time and thinking you can hold it for a marathon.

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