Finding the tempo

There's a double entendre to today's title. Partly it refers to (no surprise, I'm sure) my first tempo run of the new marathon season. Partly, it refers to this bizarre band that Erin and I went to see yesterday in Central Park for Summer Stage. For non-New Yorkers, Summer Stage is one of the reasons to live in New York. Concerts, dance, theatre in the park, often free, several nights a week all summer long.

Now, to be fair, Erin and I didn't go solely to see the bizarre band. Erin actually gave me tickets to the Decemberists concert for my birthday last week, which may have been one of the best gifts ever. I really like this band. Even though I may have written a few months ago that I sing the Killers at the top of my lungs while running, usually I don't. More likely would be the Decemberists or Modest Mouse, with the occasional TV on the Radio. The Killers would be a little odd for me, although I'm certain that everyone has run tempo to their "Mr. Brightside" at one point or another.

Anyway, the odd opening band was called Grizzly Bear and their music (I'll call it that because you couldn't really call it songs) consisted of caterwauls and moans with heavy, heavy use of the echo effect. It really kind of sounded like they'd just discovered this sound device and, like a kid with a new toy, wanted to use it in the entire set as well as during the intra-song banter. To add to this and, I suppose, to really appease of a crowd of NYU students and wannabe college radio disc jockeys, just when a rhythm started to develop, when what they were playing might develop into an honest-to-goodness tune, out of nowhere they'd pull a disconcerting drop in tempo that really felt the acoustical equivalent of the elevator drop at Six Flags. Erin's take, "I don't really go for psychedelic Gregorian chanting." Me neither.

But the Decemberists. Great Great Great concert band. I've never seen a crowd so happy to sing songs about sweethearts lost at sea, pirate's revenge, kidnapping ( She cursed, she shivered/She cried for mercy,/"My gold and silver if thou will release me!"/I'll take no gold miss, I'll take no silver/I'll take those sweet lips, and I'll deliver) or the lyrics "You'll not feel the drowning/You'll not feel the drowning," which the entire crowd sang along to, quite happily I might add. There really was something kind of perverse it the whole thing now that I think about it. I mean, it was a summer festival.

But lest you think the lyrics were the only weirdness at a concert by a band whose last album was based around a Japanese folk tale, and whose tunes are peppered to references to Shakesphere (In the lowlands, nestled in the heat/A briar cradle rocks it's babe to sleep/Its contents watched by Sycorax/And patagon in paralax/A foretold rumbling sounds below the deep/Come and see/Come and see) we also had a game of beach ball played with, not a beach ball, but a stuffed seal, we finished off the first set with Colin Meloy leading the crowd in a chant of "hear all the bombs... fade away, hear all the bombs ... fade away," and at one point during the encore, we had Meloy convincing the crowd and the band to lay down and pretend to be asleep. Bizarre, but very fun and highly recommended.

In all that, I forgot to mention the tempo run. McCarren Park track. 8.25 total miles in 59:15 (avg. of 7:11/mile). Breakdown of: Warmup of 2.13 in 16:52 (7:57/mile); 4 tempo miles in 6:27, 6:30, 6:29, 6:26; Cooldown of 2.13 in 16:22 (7:41). This felt pretty good although the last mile or so of the tempo was pretty tough. All in all, it was not bad at all for my first planned and structured speed workout of 2007. No, not bad at all.

Week (of July 9) in Review

Monday	Rest	--	--
Tuesday	8.6 miles	1:10:00	8:08/mile
Wednesday	4.15 miles	29:34	7:07/mile
Thursday	10.3 miles	1:16:00	7:23/mile
Friday	Rest	--	--
Saturday	14.5 Miles	1:52:53	7:47/mile
Sunday	3.5 miles	26:09	7:28/mile
Total	41.1 Miles	--	--

Fatigued

Oh man, oh man, I'm tired! Today makes four days of running in a row, which I haven't done since December. The schedule compression is caused by tomorrow's travel -- getting to LaGuardia, flying to Nashville, Tennessee, a 2.5 hour drive to my parents' in Kentucky, a normal family whirlwind, and my ten-year high school reunion. Running tomorrow? Ha! I have 15 on tap for Sunday... but, after Saturday, we'll see.

I've been on a small mileage binge over the last month and, as I sit here sipping my Juicy-Juice, I'm kind of glad next week's a cut-back.

Cut-back, huh? The terminology's starting to come back to me and that's good because a week from Monday official training kicks off for this:

Date : Jun 22, 2007 1:38 AM
subject: I'm in! the ING New York City Marathon 2007

Congratulations! You’re one of the lucky ones!

Since I'm going to be in Kentucky for the next week (and my hometown's so rural that broadband/cable/DSL doesn't exist) posting's going to be sporadic.

Y'all have a good'un an' I'll see ya' na-ext week. (I'm practicing.)

Yesterday: 8 miles (Billy-Br. + McCarren Park) in 59:30 (7:26/mile)
Today: 4.15 miles (Pulaski O&B) in 30:15 (7:17/mile)

P.S. We got tickets to see The New Pornographers on July 4!

So, this is the new year. . .

. . . and I don't feel any different.*

Yes, folks, today was my first run of the New Year and unlike the implication lent by the line I stole from Ben Gibbard's band, it really felt like I'd taken two weeks off to spend a lot of hours at my desk job. I actually feel tired and, at least for today's run, extremely uncoordinated. My hips, calves, hammies and shoulders all felt tight and certainly didn't want to stretch out for a solid stride. It's amazing how "off" one feels after two weeks off. Even though my legs felt fresh, every footfall seemed to hit the ground a half second either before or after I thought it should. It was only with the last mile that things seemed close to "right," and the pace dropped significantly at that point with almost no additional effort.

As for Houston, today's run left me completely certain that I'd made the right decision. Although my legs felt fresh, extremely fresh (even if they weren't operating with the precision I'd like), mentally, the five mile Billy Bridge O&B was almost more than I could take. Although Friday was a 'normal' workday, the last two weeks have taken such a toll that just running water for clean cereal bowl this morning seemed like the greatest chore in the world! With that said, I can't imagine how I'd have managed to catch a flight!

Furthermore, this shortie 5-miler was extremely mentally challenging. Halfway through the run, thoughts that I imagine attack the minds of those who are running for the first time ever, or maybe those who view exercise as a punishment continually assailed my mind -- thoughts like: "What sort of freak does this for fun!?!" and "My god, I'm supposed to do this every day!?!" Fortunately, my mental outlook changed immensely in the last mile, once my joints started to loosen up some and my legs started to get somewhat recoordinated. Although the middle 60% of the run was pretty dim, I finished actually looking forward to getting running back into the routine again. But those dark thoughts confirm exactly how difficult trying to run a marathon this weekend would have been. Although I finished on a high note today, most of the middle miles of the run were mentally pretty bleak. Even at the best of times, racing the marathon presents bleak moments, and I don't believe I'd have had the mental reserves to handle them.

For the future, I'm considering the JFK Airport 5K in April as my target for spring. I've been browsing plans online, but haven't found anything that I like yet. Anyone out there have any suggestions on structuring 12 weeks to make a strike at sub-18?

Billy Bridge O&B: 5 miles in 36:24 (7:17 pace).

*From Death Cab for Cutie'sTransatlanticism.

"The New Year"

So this is the new year.
And I don't feel any different.
The clanking of crystal
Explosions off in the distance (in the distance).

So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
For self assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions

So everybody put your best suit or dress on
Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
Lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
As thirty dialogs bleed into one

I wish the world was flat like the old days
Then I could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways
There'd be no distance that could hold us back.

There'd be no distance that could hold us back [x2]

So this is the new year [x4]

Melt Your Face Cold

That's what I thought while running into a headwind during my pre-dawn 5 miler today on a reported 19 degree morning. By half a mile, my hands and face hurt immensely. By three-quarters, I turned out of the wind but it didn't matter anymore since everything above my neck or below my elbows was numb. Not surprisingly, the Williamsburg Bridge was largely deserted today. Except for a pair of middle-aged, female twins who walk the Bridge every morning at 7. And about half a dozen runners, including one (fool)hearty soul in shorts. The windchill, by the way, was 4.

It's funny, but most of the time, you never notice a tailwind. Sometimes you do and I always find that a little unnerving. Happened today on the way back across the bridge today. It goes like this: you're in mid-stride and a gust hits you from behind. . . and your stride takes you a little farther than normal, you're a little higher off the ground, you're moving forward a good bit faster. For just a split second, although you're inches from the ground, you're no longer in control, just a leaf on the wind.

I'm ready for winter to be over, but the unusually warm November reminded me of the second verse of The Postal Service's "Sleeping In" from the album Give Up:

Again last night I had that strange dream
Where everything was exactly how it seemed
Where concerns about the world getting warmer
The people thought they were just being rewarded
For treating others as they'd like to be treated
For obeying stop signs and curing diseases
For mailing letters with the address of the sender
Now we can swim any day in November

Don't wake me I plan on sleeping
(now we can swim any day in November)
Don't wake me I plan on sleeping in
Don't wake me I plan on sleeping
Don't wake me I plan on sleeping in

Incidentally, I only went out at all this morning because I can't hit the gym tonight due to the Kentucky Society's semi-annual dinner. The speaker is Joshua Prince-Ramus of Ramus Ella Architects, who's designing Louisville's Museum Plaza, a 62 floor, three tower, mixed-use complex for commercial, residential and . . . a musuem. It'll also be the tallest building in the region when completed.

And, a few weeks ago, I listed some reasons why the Houston Marathon might be a bad idea. Yesterday, I had a conversation with a partner at the firm where the phrase, "We don't expect you to bill 100 hours a week for the next three months," was uttered. Of course, when a phrase like that is spoken, we all know what it really means, don't we?

Monday: 5.7 miles (7:58 pace)
Wednesday: 13.1 miles (7:58 pace)
Thursday: 10.33 miles (7:56 pace)
Friday: 5 miles (7:36 pace)