Thursday, May 22, 2008

TIGERS ARE TIGERS

Because Adam likes pictures (and because I don’t have much to say), here’s another look at my 7-day rolling mileage; Running is in blue and Running & Skiing is in magenta.


I ran a very easy 6 miles this morning. I can’t stop telling you how great the weather has been lately; 50 degrees calm and clear today. It’s the type of weather that makes you want to seek out a race on the weekends, even if you don’t have one planned.

I’ve been having some weird sensations lately. I mentioned that the right side of my body got sunburned at Boston. Well now my right shoulder itches – especially at night. And it’s more like someone is poking me with needles. Worst of all, scratching it doesn’t make it go away for very long.

I’ve also been having pain in my “ring” toe on my left foot. I can usually crack the knuckles in my toes, but trying to do that sends a sharp pain throughout my toe/foot. It doesn’t seem to bother me running, but I can really feel it just walking if I try to push off really hard. I don’t even know when this started bothering me – maybe before Boston.

Finally, here are some results you don’t see every day – taken from a local 5K. A woman in first overall followed by a 64 year old. And the top-10 included 4 women. Maybe I do need to focus on the shorter events if 5Ks are going to be won in 20+ minutes. Maybe I could win my first race.

CLASS
PLACE PLACE FINISHER TIME PACE

1 1 W20 Elizabeth Johnson, 31*, Woodbury, MN 20:12 6:30
1 1 M60 Norm Purrington, 64, Lake Elmo, MN 20:20 6:33
2 1 M45 Jon Gutierrez, 47, Stillwater, MN 20:42 6:40
2 1 W14 Kaitlyn Wetzstein, 14*, Hudson, WI 20:49 6:42
3 1 W10 Erin Wetzstein, 11*, Hudson, WI 20:52 6:43
3 1 M35 Bribitzer-stull, 35, Minneapolis, MN 20:53 6:43
4 1 M20 Frank Tate, 31, Hastings, MN 21:02 6:46
5 2 M20 Patrick Byrnes, 28, Blaine, MN 21:39 6:58
4 2 W20 Sarah Chapman, 22*, Apple Valley, MN 21:44 7:00

Quote of the day;

“I don’t believe in chewing on athletes. People are out there to do their best. If you growl at them and they’re not tigers, they’ll collapse. Or they’ll try to make like a tiger. But the tigers are tigers. All you have to do is cool them down a little bit so they don’t make some dumb mistake like running the first quarter in fifty-five seconds” – Bill Bowerman

4 comments:

Adam said...

Thanks for the graph, Chad!

That's a pretty tightly bunched top ten considering the winning time was 20 minutes. It must have been fun for that group to think about race tactics towards the end.

Anonymous said...

Chad, stop cracking your toes. If they get sore and don't want to bend it can lead to a metatarsal stress reaction.

Pray to the running gods for a sub 3 in your next marathon.

I'm running a 100k of my own devising next week in R.I. I'm calling it the Ocean State North/South Traverse 100k.

If having a 365 day a year running obsession is wrong, I don't want to be right, lol.


Take care,

Mark in New England

Chad said...

Adam, good point. I remember running a low-key 5 miler 2-3 years ago and the top guy went out easy. That let a pack of 5-6 hang together for about 2-3 miles before he picked it up. Although I didn't run fast, it was a different feeling being in the lead pack and thinking more tactically.

Mark, you're probably right - although you sound like my mom. :) Good luck with your 100k.

Anonymous said...

Hey, you updated your picture.