Saturday 101814

I slept pretty poorly last night.  Early I had banged my knee pretty well against the sink, and it was throbbing well enough to wake me up.  In the middle of the night I was watching RTE 1, some show with Gaelic being spoken and English subtitles (it is an interesting point made by several in England that while it is where English originated it seems to be less and less the language spoken there).   I woke this AM feeling a bit doubtful about the Saint Anne Park run.  Nonetheless, I figured I’d at least give a jog in the direction a go to see how it felt.

4 miles over to the park.  The knee was a bit sore but not any worse for running.  The sun had broken through last night’s rain, and the park was beautiful.It was pretty easy to find the race, with close to 300 runners milling in and about.
At 9:30 a guy gave a few instructions over a bull horn, we walked around the corner and got the 3-2-1 go.  It went out quick.  I had decided with 50+ miles in my legs over the three day before, I was going to attempt to not give too much at the start, but to not go out over my head either.  In the first 400 yards I was about 10th, and then folks started to come back.  I went through a gob of folks and then I was fifth.  Just before the mile I came up on a guy and it seemed like it would be a basic pass.  But he latched on and hung for about a third of a mile before falling back a bit.  This brought us up to third a bit.  I came up onto him as we entered the second lap and he did the same.  As I came to his shoulder he surged and then stuck with me.  He didn’t shake as easy and I was pretty convinced that he’d sit about 3 yards behind me until the last quarter where he’d blow my doors off.  I managed to get some daylight between him and me over the last half mile, and finished in 18:25 for third.  For a bit I thought second might come back, but he opened it up over the last mile more than I can match and finished over 20 seconds ahead.

Not stellar, but I am happy with it in light of the load over the last couple of days.   Additionally I am happy in that  it might be the first 5k I legitimately negatively split in like a hundred years (6:08, 6:01, 5:56).  The effort was not a huge challenge aerobically, that might be the sea level thing … but my legs were clearly a bit challenged to move well today.  But that is okay as I am trying to just keep at running on tired legs. I felt like it was an uptempo run more than a “balls out” effort – I simply could not get to that because my legs were a bit too tired to do that.

Afterwards there was a psuedo community farmer’s market.  I grabbed a coffee, checked out the scene a bit, and yapped with another runner who mentioned there is an 8k in Phoenix Park tomorrow.  I am on the fence as to whether I will look to jump in or not.  I want to but apparently spikes are probably required, and apparently it will go pretty quick (sub 25).  I am okay with that but if I was the last behind everyone by six minutes that could be a bit of a problem.  The guy I spoke to thought it would be okay from a time perspective, but was pretty sure I’d need spikes.  I will see how I feel.
There was this pretty cute dog discipline class going on, as the dogs were all older puppies.

After taking it in for a bit, I started the jog back but swung east over Bull Island.  
There were all these dudes out surfing with the big kites. 
As I came back across to the mainland, there was a Scout gathering – a bunch of the younger Sea Scouts, finishing up an overnight and getting ready for some instruction on tent setup, pioneering, etc.  Cool to see Scouting in the international realm so I stood at a distance and watched for a bit.

Finished with 15.7 miles on the day.

Parkrun is a pretty amazing thing here in Europe.  Free, volunteer run 5ks.  Seems like it can’t take off in the US because of the liability factor in using parks there (from what I gather, the city councils underwrite this here in Ireland … while I appreciate that, I am not sure I am game for the cost, government intervention that means – particularly in light of the 100000 person protest there was here in Dublin last week on water metering at 5 Euro a miter (that is a 1000 liters). 

Still, I am game for paying for a good run service product.  If RD’s make money, and the people are happy with what they got, I see no problem in that (some might).  That said, I think the bar is pretty low for most races, in what they provide versus what they charge – and particularly in light of what they are getting out of volunteers.  But, anyway, that is a less than positive topic.

No Elk tag for me back home this year … I was thinking of getting one over the counter but the timing is not great.  I will probably head east for some birding again.  My father-in-law has a tag, and if he gets one, I expect to be working on harvesting to learn about that.  Candidly, this New England kid never really learned those lessons.  It takes some learning.

The call for nominations for USATF MUT Runner of the Year is up.  I’d think that probably be Canaday or Gray … probably Gray because I think technically Canaday’s wins are more on the Skyrunning circuit.

I will skip posting the obligatory Foo video today, but you can go and google what they did with Letterman this past week, including putting Taylor Hawkins up as the singer like Robin Zander (even dressing like him) with Cheap Trick’s Rick Neilsen on guitar and Dave behind the drums.

Other news stuff:  Apparently at the Skyrunning race I considered going to Steve K got the win.   Remember that guy who disappeared at the Mount Marathon race?  The post activity is pretty ugly.  And later I will be pouring over PreNats and Wisco results for XC.

Friday 101714

Today’s listening.

Traveled from London to Dublin today.  I am thinking of hopping in a local Park Run tomorrow over in Saint Annes Park - so I decided to jog over to where it is so that I had that dialed in. 

10.6 miles.  A little fatigue in the legs from yesterday but not bad at all.  Briefly contemplated going out Cork tomorrow to check out the donkey rescue out there, but as it is 3 plus hours away via public transport, I will wait for the next time I have some time in Cork.  Also thought about going to Northern Ireland to check out Belfast or to even check out the Skyrunning thing, but it is about 3 hours one way as well. 

Q:  If you could go back and tell your 16 year-old-self something, what would you say?  A.  I think life is all about learning from our mistakes, so I would probably say nothing.  Me?  I’d have a lot to say because I there are probably a few mistakes I could do better having not learned directly from.

I think I have said Colorado is the best place for beer.  My opinion on that was not swayed in London last week.  There were some fair beers, but the English style ales are just not to par of what we have in the Mile High.  I was not expecting much more in Dublin, as the choices here are usually pretty thin:  Heineken, Harp and Guinness (at least in Cork you can get Murphy’s or Beamish).  But this go around I located a microbrewery.  I walked in from the rain, got the stew and had a brew.  Solid.

Thursday 101614

My company engages with the International SOS service company and so whenever I book travel to an international location, I immediately get notification of any travel consideration to that location.  Along the way, if anything is of a particular concern, I also get a notification.  Here is their link for their notification on the current ebola scare. 

I am no fan of OSMP’s top dog, Mike Patton, given the decisions that have been made on his watch, so I hope that his retirement announcement means that subsequently we get a new leader that identifies with usage in a more appropriate manner.

Training for a marathon?  Pressed for time?  No problem.  Bill Murray has a brilliant plan.

Long run around London today, checking out various things, taking shots, dodging the sea of humanity down by the river.  First I went by Abbey Road Studios (it is about a mile from my hotel).
Then I made my way over to Regent Park.  A big outdoor art exhibition is going on there.

I slipped out of the park via the Regent Canal. 

Then over to Hyde Park, Kensington Park and near Kensington Palace.

As I swung out of there I saw Royal Albert Hall.

Down lower in town … well it is not ideal to run with the press of people, the road crossings, etc … really it is probably better to stay in the parks. 

Saw this guy on the path.  He reminded me of Michael Hedges.

Once you get east of Tower Bridge , the Thames path comes and goes, it is not really continuous.  As a result, there are less people and some fun places to run. 

I took breaks along the way for pictures, and got a bite to eat around 16 miles.  I started to head back and got to Trafalgar Square, and hopped the Bakerloo line back to the hotel …. I ended up with 26.7 on the day.  It was easy paced.  Actual running pace was all over the place with it coming to a complete stop at times on some parts on the path.

Zep fans might dig this. RnR was the first song I ever played in a band live.  For what it is worth, I am having a hard time hearing how it is an “alternate mix.”

Good vid with Anton.

Admittedly I am an Anton fan.  The dude is genuine, caring, and passionate.  He comes across to me as pretty damn smart as well.  He is certainly well spoken and when he writes it is good writing.  It probably doesn’t hurt that he dropped me some comments before my first hundred that were personal from his perspective that I called on during that run. His words here ring to me of that same sort of “pep talk.”  It is stuff that we relate to that is well said by Tony, in same way they call on Thoreau … what he said about getting out into nature years ago still rings well with us. 

I wonder however if sometimes those who say these things so well get tired of it.  If instead of speaking of it, they rather be doing it.  Most of us like to share stories, and no doubt, I like to talk, so I sort of expect that people like to talk.  But with some, it is clearly better to be doing than talking (or blogging or facebooking or whatever).

Various on Wednesday

Evening – 3 very easy miles.  Raining again. 

The local track.  Very little action … more on the fenced in soccer pitches actually.

Headed into town in the evening and met up with Sean B.  Threw back a few brews, chatted running and the like.  A million miles from home but awesome to chat with a guy in our running family.

The Tube.  I sort of love it.  I love subways.  Sort of.  I realize they are sort of nasty things but I see them as incredible marvels.  In their own way, they are engineering feats that are even grander than Saint Paul’s cathedral.  But they won’t get that sort of recognition.  They are just these work horse people movers.  And deep under the ground. 
And there is this weird dance we do on them that I don’t get to see that often.  You are only a few feet from people but – nope – we are all on our own little ipod planet.

And there the mice down there too.  I guess some might call those rats.

We finished up the primary part of our engagement here in London today so I had a bit of time to blast through some gabiziilion posts, readings on work stuff, running, healthcare, medical device regulations, etc this afternoon.  I still have a ton but I got about half way through it.  A few items to share from that are further below.

Today’s listening.  Hawkins drums probably don’t get the credit they ought to given who is in the band, but dude is solid on the skins.

The boss of the boss of the boss of my boss presents on healthcare.

More listening.

Good read from Dina on her lessons from Leadville.

Fact of the Week:  If you run 2:09:12 or slower in the marathon you are actually closer to the women’s world record than the men’s. Only nine American men have ever run faster than 2:09:12.  Other marathon stuff: 
- Cool recap of Jonesy’s record in the marathon from 30 years ago.  Great take on this year’s Chicago, including that it is really remembered as one where Bekele did not meet expectations.  I need to go back and read this when I have more time but the latest from SoS on the sub 2 marathon thing.
- I am shaking my head a Mirinda’s marathon at Kona.  Faster than all the men’s field.  Wow. 
-  Shalene post her coming up short of an AR at Berlin.  She seems to be one cool lady. 

So while it does not get the play of minimalist shoes (or then maximalist shoes) or some other trend in training, there has clearly been a bit of a growth in the thought that you should eat less in your ultra.

Running is the most popular and most debilitating form of exercise. Up to 80% of runners are in pain on any given run, no matter the distance, intensity, or course.  Of course.  Buck up buttercup.

I am not worthy of this.

Wednesday 101614

AM – got a fair night sleep, but I can feel a slight cold coming in the back of the nose, throat.  Lot of leg flexing too.  Probably grinding the helluva out of my teeth as my neck is a touch sore, but I wear one of those mouth guards (so at least I am not down to nubs with the teeth). 

Anyway, up early and out for a jog that progressed to steady as the light came up.  Buzzed down around Hyde Park, Kensington Park, and Saint James Park.  Some runners out there but it is no Boston or Austin. 

Again, just feel like I am keeping in touch with the habits and getting back around to things after the week of vacation.

Various news stuff – good story on the “Iron War.”  Separately, “growing up unvaccinated.”  The big news over here today is Parliament is considering a ban on smoking in all public parks.  My casual and subjective observation is that there is significantly more smoking over here than the US.  Also, I heard on the news today that 10 million people over here got admitted to the hospital last year due to alcohol abuse related events.  That seems like a lot. 

Also, I noticed that traffic does not seem get out of the way for emergency vehicles as willingly as we do in the US.  I was told yesterday of a case where someone was brought to court here for not getting out of the way.  The guy won his defense as he stated had he got out of the way, he would have been cited with a photo ticket for rolling the light. 

Tuesday 101414

AM – okay, rain stopped and so I got out in the AM for a jog down to the river and back from Brent Cross.  Just working out the kinks from the vacation. 10.6 miles.

Monday 101314

The family pushed off today.  And I got to work.  I got three in the dark and wet rain before anyone woke up.

Didn’t finish until late, and while I thought about heading back out into the dark of the night, I was tired enough at 9, that the pretty good rain motivated me to bed.

Sunday 101214

A slow day as the family prepares to leave and I prepare to start my work engagement.

From yesterday, I like this one better in B&W.
This one too….

I also failed to post this one from this crazy room we walked into at the British Museum.

Today was some walking around downtown as we prepared to push off.
In the local park, we found a Norfolk Terrier and got a bit of a preview of waiting for us back home.


This church elsewhere would probably be a big deal in its own right.  But in London, it is just a neighborhood church.

We rode the “Tube” a bit today.

And came up into some full fledged party of Diwali in Trafalgar Square.
Some happy kid.

Wait, this guy hung out here?

Failure at family selfie with that clock tower in the background.

From the Jubillee Bridge
It is a big wheel.  We did not ride it.  The line was ridiculous.