Sunday Miles and Sore Quads

We don't usually do training as a team on Sunday, but today was an exception.  I had 12 miles to do, and it seemed like plenty.  I walked 95% of it, trying to stick with my walking teammates, especially Nancy, who had the same distance as me.  Our route went east through the Fan, the downtown (right past my office, and no, I was not tempted to go in there), past Shockoe Bottom, and then up to the top of Libby Hill, with its great view of downtown.  Then we returned to the park where we started, and that was good for nine mile.  So then, we repeated the first three mile portion of the route.  Along the way, we passed portions of a number of walks that I have documented:  the Richmond Liberty Trail, the Richmond Slave Trail, and the walk up Libby Hill from the downtown.

In the Fan District, I always enjoy seeing the flags and decorations.  Clearly, people who like the Great State of Maryland live here.

Next to the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart,

is a statue that never fails to move me, "Rachel Weeping for Her Children."  It is dedicated to the victims of the Nazis in the Holocaust.  On the base of the statue is the word "Remember" in Hebrew and English.

From the top of Libby Hill, there is a great view of the downtown.  Also, a kind soul put a check for $100 payable to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in our water basket with a nice note thanking us for what we are doing.  It asked that if the person who found it is doing well with their fundraising, then they should pass it on to someone who was not doing as well.  As fate would have it, the lady who found it is struggling with her fundraising, so it was perfect!  I was really touched that someone would do that.

On the way back, we could see "Connecticut" looking out over the river.  He used to grace the Diamond when the Richmond Braves played there.  Now that it is the Flying Squirrels, I guess he needed to find a new home.

Back in the Fan, you can see that people are already getting ready for Halloween.

We all really liked this huge painting on a building, whatever it is supposed to represent.

I'll tell you, I was tired after the 12 miles.  I went home and added 50 pounds of ice to a tub of water, and climbed in.  It was too much ice, though.  I only lasted 13 minutes before I couldn't stand it anymore and got out.  It helped with the soreness but my quads are still a little sore.  Tomorrow will definitely be a "take it easy day."

Home of the Spiders

After my training / hike combination at Maymont on Wednesday by myself, it was nice to see a few teammates Thursday night at the University of Richmond, Home of the Spiders!

For several weeks now, our run and walk teams have had informal Thursday night training at U of R, starting at 6:30.  This is when the football team ends their practice.  I've made the last two, barely escaping a huge thunderstorm a week ago.  Thursday is always short miles, about three, so we just chat and go at our own pace.  There were only four of us Thursday, and we all happened to be walkers.  It is a beautiful campus and a wonderful spot to walk.

We did four laps around the track.  Because I ran part of the last two laps, I did the first mile in about 13:15.  Then, the women's lacrosse team began practicing, and everyone has to leave the track so that they don't risk getting hit by a stray ball.

So we headed through the campus and did several laps around a lake.  I think this building is some kind of student center and / or dining hall.

We chatted about fund raising, training, blood cancers, and so forth as we did our laps.  One of my teammates was a bit scared of two aggressive domestic geese, but nothing happened, even though they can bite.  We enjoyed seeing the students, all looking so young with their lives still mostly ahead of them.  I know that college and being young has its own stresses, but that is a pretty good time in one's life.  It costs a lot to go to this school - like $40,000 a year, I think - so I sure hope they are learning a lot while they are here.  We saw a number of young people running.

One of my teammates, Susan, works with a friend that I have on my fundraising list.  She gave Susan a check for me, and this now puts my fundraising just over $5,000.  I am still short of my goal, and of dying my hair purple, but am happy to have reached that threshold.

For the first time all season, we have no Saturday training, so I will take it easy today in anticipation of 12 miles with the team on Sunday.  You know I will be buying some big bags of ice after that!

Training By the James

With the Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon just three weeks from today, making each training seems more urgent.  Yesterday's training was on a particularly gorgeous day - high 50's when we started, and not a cloud in the sky - a fine contrast with all of the hot and muggy days we have been out there.  And we combined a beautiful day with one of my favorite routes - along the James to the Pony Pasture.  We started near the University of Richmond instead of at our usual place at Byrd Park, so it was just a couple of miles to reach Pony Pasture Park.

Our mission moment Saturday was from Leslie.  She spoke of how it has been 8 months yesterday since her husband Ed died.  The Crawlin' Crab race will be on his birthday, which is why I picked that race.  I cannot even imagine what an emotional day it will be for Leslie when she gets up that morning and puts on the race clothing to run in memory of her husband with his sisters.

One of the pleasures of being out for an early run or walk in Richmond is running into old friends.  A few weeks ago, I saw my friend Nicki, who is training for the Richmond Marathon.  She is one of my "February Miracle Girls."  Yesterday, I ran into Jamal, who I had not seen in a long time.  He was out running with some kind of "SEAL Team" thing.  Jamal spoke at my very first Team in Training informational meeting.  I was hesitant because I didn't think I could raise the money necessary, but he told me "You can, and you will!"  And he was right.

Our route started almost immediately over the new Huguenot Bridge.  It was my first time on foot over the bridge since it was replaced, and is quite an improvement over the old one.

Once over the bridge, the route was along Riverside Drive.  For some reason, I had the least miles of anyone out yesterday, just six miles, which felt pretty good.  I mixed in a good bit of running for the first five miles, and it felt pretty good.  I enjoyed all of the river views.

After about two miles, I reached the Pony Pasture Rapids.  It is part of the James River Park system, and there is a nice park there with hiking trails and a good bit of wildlife right in the city.  I've described hikes there at this link and also here.

At this point in the river, an old dam appears to have had a section dynamited out, I think to allow sturgeon to spawn.  These huge fish (up to 10 feet long) have been seen in the James right in downtown as they try to swim upriver for spawning.

At the three mile point, it was time for me to turn around.  But first, I had to do something.  For each of our routes, we were supposed to do a specific action at our turn around point.  Mine, believe it or not, was to dance a jig.  I happened to arrive at the same time as one of my running teammates, so she caught a video of it.  Do I know how to dance a jig?  No, so I ad-libbed.  She may post the video on the web.  I am not sure that we should subject the world to that.

I had done almost all of my route by myself, so it was nice when, with about a mile to go, I caught up with two teammates who had turned back because they had somewhere to be at 9:30.  They had done three miles at that point and I had done five.  I saw them way ahead of me coming back along Riverside Drive and tried pretty hard to catch them so I could say hello.  Once I caught up with them, I adjusted my pace to walk back to the parking lot with them.  It was a nice way to finish a great day of training by the James.

Gorgeous Day for a 12 Mile Workout

Today dawned as a gorgeous day for this time of year in Eastern Virginia.  The temperature was about 58 at the start of training at 6:30.  Starting a half hour later was really nice, too.  We still got there early enough to see a nice sunrise over Boat Lake in Byrd Park.

After today, I only have one more long mileage training day before the Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon.  This is hard to believe.  But anyhow, I wanted to get in a good workout today, going 12 miles.  My friend Lelia came out and walked with me.  She is also going to the race, just not with Team in Training.  Our route was two file mile loops through Windsor Farms, with its beautiful homes, like this pink house:

the up to Monument Avenue and east to Boulevard, and down to the park.  I couldn't resist another photo, just like last week, of some of the detail around the Maury statue.

At the end of our second five mile loop, Lelia snapped this photo of me with the Christopher Columbus statue.  Do I look like I just fast-walked 10 miles?

At this point, Lelia left and I did two more miles, walking around the one mile VITA course twice.  There are still the flowers of late summer,

and the VITA course trail is level and nicely graveled.

After 12 miles, I found I had averaged a shade over a 14 minute per mile walking pace, which is not too shabby.  I stretched a bit, went home, stretched some more, drank a bottle of coconut water, brewed a mug of tea, and climbed into a refreshing ice water bath.  It is not fun but takes out some of the leg soreness.  Next Saturday, just six miles are called for!  Yay!

Glamorous Rockfish!

The alarm went off at 5:10 yesterday and I jumped out of bed as quickly as I could.  I shaved and pulled on my workout clothes - no point taking a shower just yet - and wolfed down a bagel.  I left the house at 5:45 and got to training a few minutes late, but we always have a little grace period.  It would be a big day - my first "double digit" mile day (other than some hikes) since I ran the Shamrock Half Marathon in March 2012.

I decided that I was only going to walk the 11 miles and see how my knees do.  My friend Lelia came out to walk with me.  She is also training for the Crawlin' Crab, doing a run - walk combination.  We joined my teammate Nancy, who has active CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia).  Isn't that amazing - to be out walking a half marathon with an active cancer?  CLL is one of those slow, slow growing cancers.  It makes it good because it isn't going to end your life in a matter of months or a couple of years.  But the bad news is that it is very difficult to treat and there is no cure for it.  Nancy's counts keep going up and are now something like five times normal.  Eventually, they will give her chemo which will slow things down for a while until the counts come up and they have to repeat it.  But maybe, through our efforts and that of so many others, a cure will be found for her.  That is my fervent hope, because there has been some really great progress on CLL lately.

Our 11 mile route yesterday was like a big cross - north from the park to Monument, west to Chantilly, back to Boulevard, then north to Westwood, then turn back Monument, east to Harrison, turn around back to Boulevard, then south to park.  I liked the route because we kept encountering slower and faster teammates, and those with different distances.Yesterday, our team was doing eight to 14 miles.  My 11 was right in the middle.

It was a scenic walk in Richmond and I took a lot of photos.  My two co-walkers kept shaking their heads, and my only running was to catch them after taking pictures.  Monument Avenue is a beautiful street, with six great monuments and lovely homes and landscaping.  We passed every one of the monuments.  I am not repeating the photos of "Stonewall" Jackson and Arthur Ashe from last week, but have included the others.

A few weeks ago, I had photos of the Matthew Fontaine Maury statue, which I really like.  Here is a close up of some of the shipwreck victims, including a cow and a dog.  Maury's work as a US Naval officer made travel by sea safer, and he is known as the "Pathfinder of the Seas."

This big spider went to a lot of work to build this huge web.  It was more than a meter across.  I would guess someone will wreck it at some point, but I snapped a photo and left it be.  I am glad not to be a fly.

So now you can see where the title for the post came from.  Maybe about 8-10 years ago, Richmond put big fiberglass rockfish all over the city and artists painted them.  After the public display, I imagine they were sold to people for use in their yards.  Isn't this one cool?

Once we were back on Boulevard and heading north, we passed the Diamond, home to our local Double A baseball team, the Richmond Flying Squirrels!

Now, we are back on Monument Avenue, heading east before turning around and Harrison and heading back to Boulevard to head south to the park.  I really liked this brick portico....

.... and the flowers in front of the home next to it.

"... 'Tis the Star Spangled Banner! Oh, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!"

Wouldn't it be an amazing cow that could jump over the moon?  I loved this banner.

Confederate General James Ewell Brown "JEB" Stuart patrols the eastern end of Monument Avenue near VCU.

Two of my teammates take a quick walk break in the last few miles of their 14 miler.  Makes me glad I am not training for a full marathon again.  13.1 seems long enough, and there is no need to double it.  One of them is dealing with plantar fasciitis, which is so miserable.  How she can do 14 miles with it active is beyond me.  It took me eight months to get past mine two years ago.

Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Traveler is the tallest of the monuments.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis is the third of the six monuments when one starts at the eastern end of Monument Avenue.

Our walking pace was not really fast, maybe just over 15 minutes per mile.  But that includes stopping numerous times for a water break and a few times to wait for traffic.  Speaking of water breaks, the other day on my lunch break, a company was passing out free bottles of their energy drink, so I grabbed one, thinking it would be a nice thing to take along on the walk yesterday.  It was called "raspberry - lemonade."  One sip of it convinced me that its original flavor name had been "camel urine," but a focus group told them that wouldn't sell as well!  It was awful, and the taste stayed in my mouth for a long time.  I dumped it out.

When I got home, I stretched out, enjoyed a mug of hot tea and a couple of donuts that I bought from the Westhampton Pastry shop, and read a little of the paper.  Then I brewed another mug of tea, dumped 20 pounds of ice in a tub of cold water, and clambered in for 15 minutes.  Miserable at the time, but I am not sore at all today.

Mid-Week Training

During Team in Training, our longest mileage day is scheduled for Saturday, but we are supposed to do at least three other runs or walks during the week, plus a day of cross training.  These, for a half marathon, are typically 3-6 miles each.  And I have had a really hard time keeping up with them.  I've been trying to figure out why.

With my nine hour work day, I would have to get up about 4:30 to walk 4 miles before work.  In the past, I was able to do that, sometimes even being out at 3:45AM to get out and do 10 miles.  Not this year.  I've done very few early morning walks.  It just feels too early.  So I've relied on workouts after work, and that can be tough, too.  I've been inconsistent at best.  But I did get in 4 miles after work yesterday, then went to water aerobics for an hour.  I tried running yesterday, but unlike Saturday, when it felt pretty good, yesterday, I got a shot of pain in my left knee every time that foot landed.  And I thought, "Even for a guy, this is stupid.  The world will not come to an end if I have to walk the Crawlin' Crab and if it takes me longer than three hours."  So, I stopped running after a couple of hundred feet, and walked.  My route went by a high school and I timed myself walking a quarter mile on their track.  It took three minutes and 35 seconds, which translates to a 14:20 pace to walk a mile.  Not slow, by any means, but much too slow to walk 13.1 miles in under three hours.  Ah well!  Tomorrow will be a good test, with an 11 mile walk on the schedule.

I have today off and had hoped to hike the Rip Rap Hollow Trail, a moderately tough 9.6 mile hike with lots of elevation.  But it was not meant to be.  As fate had it, I needed to be at home for an electrical inspection, then I ended up with errands to do.  So no hike for me today, but I will shortly go to the gym and the pool.  I need to do upper body workouts more often, and a soak in the pool will do me good.  I may do a half hour of elliptical, too.  This is supposed to be a rest day, but some cross-training counts.  And with a long morning of training tomorrow, maybe it is best that I didn't get to hike today.

Back at Training

After missing two straight weeks of training to travel to and from Michigan, it felt good to be back yesterday.  My schedule was a down week, calling for just five miles.  But since I have done minimal training - and not running at all since my back pain - I decided I needed more miles.  The Crawlin' Crab race is just six weeks away now - or is it five? - and I am not feeling ready to go 13.1 in any kind of respectable time.

So I set my alarm yesterday for 5:10 - ugh! - so I could be at the park by 6AM.  We had a fairly small turnout and people were doing a huge range of miles, from 4 to 19!  So a lot of folks tended to train alone.  I did a mile or so with some others, then took off on my own route, playing leapfrog a few times with the runners.  I might pass them when I would run, then they would pass me when I switched to a walk.  It was a delightful August morning to be alive and out and about.  My route went up the Boulevard, out Monument Avenue, down to Grove, then out the Westhampton Theater - about 4.5 miles each way.

After seven miles of alternating running and walking, I decided that I had run enough for not having done any for three weeks, and resolved to walk only for the last two miles back.  At that point, I reached a cross street and two people called my name.  There, coming up the street and just yards away, were Lelia and Michal, friends from my very first Team in Training experience - and several since.  It was great to see them, and to walk with them, as they were also heading back to the park at that point.  I see Lelia reasonably often, as we sometimes walk together after work, but had not seen Michal in years.  It felt like true serendipity!  If my pace had been just seconds different, had I stopped longer to take a drink, then I would have passed the street at a different time.  So that was very cool!

After training, several of us went to brunch at Panera, then to a clinic on Rock Tape, which was interesting.  I got some tape put on my knee and back.

I took a few photos along the way.  Our route passed the wonderful Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,

then passed by the Daughters of the Confederacy building and the Virginia Historical Society.

At the intersection of Boulevard and Monument, General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson is forever on the alert.

Monument Avenue is one of the most beautiful streets in Richmond and has so many interesting homes, like this one with the state roof.

The westernmost statue on Monument Avenue is of Arthur Ashe, Richmond native, tennis star, and all-around good guy.  Believe it or not, this statue was so controversial when first erected, but now everyone is pretty calm about it.

As I prepare for the Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon, I felt as if this crab flag were a good omen.

I wanted to take a photo of Lelia, Michal, and me together but they respectfully declined.

I am happy to report that - knock on wood - so far today, my back feels fine after the running.  I do have some leg soreness so will take it easy for a few days and try to get back to my stretching routine.

Back with the Team!

After missing two Saturday's to travel to California, it was nice to train with the team today.  This was my first Saturday trying to mix in some running with the walking.  I was supposed to go for nine miles but only did eight so that I could see a special guest.  Our route was, once again, the hills along Riverside Drive, on this muggy Saturday.  Here, a couple teammates walk across the Nickel Bridge.



Every time we go by the house, I like it.  It reminds me of a cottage in the woods.

One of my very crafty teammates says that this is a "yarn bomb."  Whatever it is, I thought it was clever and pretty.  Virginia is for lovers!

Campbell (the third from the left in the red shirt and orange ribbon) is out special guest today.  She is coming up on 8 and has been dealing with leukemia for the last year.  Her story is a poignant reminder about why we do this - why getting up at 5:30 on a Saturday to travel for miles on foot is so doable to our team.

Campbell passed out cupcakes and cards that she made.  Here is mine.  It says thank you but when I tucked it under my arm to eat my cupcake, my soaking wet shirt kind of erased the "thank."

Mixing it Up

It's been a while since I posted here.  I meant to about a week and a half ago, but I ran out of time before heading to California for a week.

Anyhow, since I was going to California and would miss two group trainings, and since I had Friday July 19 off, and since I did not want to take the time to go for a long hike somewhere that day, I did 8 miles of training early that morning by myself.  And for the first time over a year, I added some running to the mix: 1 minute running and 4 minutes walking.  The last two miles, I only walked.  My knee, which hurts some normally now, didn't feel any worse.  So, I am going to keep trying that - unless it does begin hurting more.  I don't want to push things by running a lot, but I think I can do enough limited running to stay under three hours for the Crawlin' Crab Half Marathon.  I really would like to do that.

While returning from California in a long layover in Dallas, two people saw me in my purple shirt and called out "Go Team!"  One of them has done multiple cycle events, and the other has done one event - the Anchorage Marathon in 2003 (two years before me - still one of the great experiences of my life!)  I thought to thank the second guy, as a Hodgkin's lymphoma survivor, and his reply was, "Well, thank you!  My son is a leukemia survivor!"

My training two Friday's ago was on a very warm and muggy morning at Deep Run Park.  I snapped a couple of photos while I was there.

I am looking forward to training with my team this coming Saturday.  The plantar wart on my left foot - why the hell is it always my left side? - is hurting more and I am going to a podiatrist this morning.

Training Around North Richmond

On Saturday, my training consisted of eight miles, the longest distance to date in our season. It was a pretty nice day for training, with cloud cover and reasonable morning temperatures. Starting at 6:30 helped a good bit. Our route was a circuit hike through North Richmond. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I will put a few out there to give you a flavor of where I walked today. With the race less than three months away, I still have much to do, especially if my knee can feel better enough to run part of it.

This is our famous war horse, a statue of an exhausted and starving horse at the Virginia Historical Society, that commemorates the 1.5 million horses and mules that perished during the Civil War.

Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill looks out over Hermitage Avenue.

 I thought that this crepe myrtle bush was lovely.

 Union Presbyterian Seminary is prominent along Brook Road.

 We, the "Purple People" of Team in Training, are always looking for purple objects along our routes.

 Emily and Terri give a spirited "Go Team" about a mile from our finish.

 I liked this little lion on the front stoop.