stachedwalker’s BodyBlog

Hmmm, the auto fill-in says I’ve written about this before

Today was the annual Helvetia Half Marathon.  The weather was quite a bit different than last year.  Last year it started in the 60s with overcast skies and slight sprinkles … and then dropped down into the 50s before by the end.  Today was almost cloudless (trust me, that sunburn I’m currently sporting on the neck is testimony to this .. Ouch! Ooch! Youch!!!).  Temps were in the low 50s to begin with at the race and finished up into the lower 60s by 11:30.   Outside of above mentioned sunburn, a really great day for competing.  Only headwinds we hand were on the last mile, but I should have guessed that would happen!  LOL.  

As though of you who know me know … I didn’t train as much as I should, but I still managed my Golden Rule … which is "Thou Shalt NOT take more than Three Hours to do a 1/2".  2:50:27 was my time.  About 9 minutes off last year’s time but not too shabby all things considered.   I’ll need to find out the details, but I think I did the last 1/2 faster than the 1st.  Once again, no blisters (Ya!) and no "honeybucket" visits (Ya!!) helped with times.  I can’t say enough about the on-route facilities.  About every 1 1/2 miles there were water, glukos (sp?) and toilets.  You never ran out of anything nor were the lines 20 long  with frantically hopping up and down folks waiting for their turn.   The Helvetia Half is one of the nicest 1/2 marathons I’ve seen.  The down side to finishing is the fact that you’re in a football stadium and have to climb up the bleachers to get out.  LOL.  The lady who gave me my medal took one look at me and told me where the beer stand was (Bless you, My Child!!!).  After grabbing my T-shirt I did INDEED head over to the beer section, watched people finishing the race, and listened to a band play off to the side.  

On to the next one!!

Well, seeing as this is T+85 hours it’s obvious that I didn’t kill myself (I hope!).   I’d like to give a big "THANKS" to everyone in the Phoenix area who ordered great weather ‘cuz it sure was delivered …. lows about 45, highs about 67 and no wind or rain.   Great weather to be out sight seeing … oh yeah, and doing the Phoenix Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon.  

I did make my goal of being under 3 hours … 2:52:22.   Would have been nice to do faster, but given that I hadn’t really walked at 5mph for many weeks, I’m happy with that.  As usual, slowed down the last 3 miles as I was running out of gas.  Sucks to be old.    Next up (as far as I know) is the Helvetia Half Marathon in June here in Portland.  We have BEER at the finish line (C’mon .. this is the land of Brewpubs!).   I can also spend time now lifting heavy weights.  Well, heavy for me.  Guys like Phil Wylie, John (Hercules53) and Steve (pitbull75) might mistake my barbell weights for individual dumbbell weights (lol), but i’m not arm wrestling them for the tab or anything else for that matter.  So it’s pushing as much weight as I can (right now) in the best form that I can muster up.  

Maybe this year I’ll hit the Portland Marathon again.

yup … only ’bout 40 more hours of fun in the Sun in lovely (espeically if you just can from rainy Portland) Phoenix Arizona before the PF Chang Rock n Roll full and 1/2 marathon.  I’m gonna carb load by behind off unto Sunday morning!  i had a great morning visiting with Cowboy Gene … and yes, folks, he DOES have the best private gym that probably anyone has ever seen.  This is a serious workout space. 

No more training walks (outside of pushing wheelchairs .. which can be exercise enough) before the race.  I’ll write my experiences of this 1/2 when I’m done and back home. 

In less than 2 weeks I’ll be on a plane to Phoenix for the RnR Marathon & 1/2 marathon (I’m doing the half).  2 weeks from Sunday is the big day (13th of Jan).  After being a total sloth this month, I was on the road for 1:57 today, racking up 8.5 miles.  It wasn’t raining (or sleeting or snowing) for change so I wasn’t bad weather to be outside in.  Oh yeah, 40 degrees, too.    The distance/time wasn’t too bad.  I would like to have broken 9 miles but it just didn’t happen.  

I also didn’t think the times were too bad given not a whole lot of sleep last night.  I’m taking care of an abandoned cat right now and let it sleep with me last night.  This cat has NOT figured out how to lie next to a human, it needs to be ON the human.  As in starting on the stomach, progressing up the chest, front paws either on the chin or around the neck and purring nose about 5-6" from your face.  It wants to make sure you FEEL the LOVE.   I’d feel it better if I got some more shut eye.  LOL.  

Maybe one more long walk and the rest of the time will be 1 hour walks aiming more for speed than anything else so that I get more used to walking fast.

Relaxing … but not really inactive.  While I didn’t do any training for racewalking I was running around a lot and got some 3 hours of hiking in the desert into Tuesday’s activities … with 20 lbs of a backpack with camera gear strapped to my back.  Wed. I got to meet Ian (secondfocus) as he noted in his bodyblog.  What he failed to mentioned was that two camera geeks (well, at least me!) with cameras sitting outside a coffee place means everything going by was photographed for comparisons, analysis, etc. LOL.    I sure learned a lot!  And, assuming I don’t mess this up, here’s a non-gym photo of Ian.

Another long session on the treadmill.  It was supposed to snow .. but nada!  Anway, 10 miles today.  about 2:07 to get that done and used up about 1225 calories.  Since you need to replenish your carbs when you finish this off … what better way to do that than head right on down to your local McMenamins have a nice pint of Terminator Stout while waiting for your Grilled Chicken Brewers salad to be prepared.   Hey, It’s my excuse!  LOL   I was reasonably happy with the workout today.  About 6 more weeks until the 1/2 marathon.

Another 8 miles today, but this time it was outside.  No rain … just low clouds and sunshine … and about 32 degrees when I started out at 9 this AM.  I did the 8 miles in 1:50.  I would have liked it to have been faster, but you can move faster on the treadmill than on the ‘real’ road … and I’ve got some small hills that I go up on my circular route in the neighborhood.  The good thing ’bout the cold weather, my finders didn’t swell up. 

Jeez, only taken some 5 months to write an update to this.  As you can tell, I have NOT been a good boy.
Anyway, trying to get my miles in for the Phoenx RnR 1/2 Marathon in Jan.  Typical NW weather here … raining and the 50s so walking was done on the treadmill at gym.  I put in (according to the Treadmill) 8.5 miles in 1 hour and 55 minutes … using up some 1000 calories.  The treadmill speeds need work, but I’m happy with the calories used

You know, there are times I think I have ADD …. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed on the same training regimen for more than 60 days in my life while I’m in control of my training.  Heck, even when I’m not in control!    What’s the latest?  Full body routines.  Yeah, I know … I haven’t done something like that in years.  However, I’m really undisciplined (no two ways about it) when it comes to training xnumber of days/week and on certain days.  I do let life, work … and lack of sleep … get in the way.  When you’re only training one bodypart/week, that really screws things up.  So, I figure I’ll come up with 2-3 whole body routines and try to do them at least 2x/week.  If I miss days here and there, no biggie.  I still train every part.  Today was the first day for this.  This runs a little longer than normal, but I did feel the upper body this afternoon.  I haven’t trained arms in some time.    I wonder if I’ll ache tomorrow?

Well, as I’m writing this I’m *almost* over the half.   It happened as planned on Saturday (the 9th).  As far as weather goes, it was just about as nice as could be asked for.  The sky was overcast all day.  It was barely sprinkly as we started off at 8am, and steadily increased in intensity and decreased in temp throughout the day.  I figure it was in the low 60s when the 1/2 started, and in the 50s when the I finished.  

Welcome to June in Portland! LOL

This time around there were no blisters …. no standing in line at the honey buckets … and no joint pains along the course.  These are all GOOD things.  The result was that I did a better time in 2007 than i did in 2005, and I know I was in better shape in 2005.  Still my first 6.5 miles were done at a pace of 4.8mph, and the last 6.5 were done at 4.9 miles.  It takes about 2 miles to get out of the pack so that really slows you down.

In 2005 I did the Helvetia in 2:47.  This year I did it in 2:41:59.   As Red Weston says, life just begins  at 50! LOL.  So yeah, I did better at 50 than I did at 48.   

Were there any downsides to this year’s race?   Just a couple.  One happens ever year.  That is, at the end of the race you’re in a nice stadium, and they have you climb up a couple of flights of stairs to leave.  C’mon folks, I just finished busting my tail.  Climbing stairs is NOT something I’m looking forward to.  I swear they do this just to give the EMT’s at the end something to do.    The second one was that like all good PNW events, there’s beer at the end.  This is MicroBrew Heaven, after all.  Well, sitting outside in the cold, wet rain … having a nice cold beer .. sure put a chill in the proceedings  .. pun DEFINITELY intended.  3/4 of the way through my cup I figured I wanted to get back to my car so I could turn on the heat and electric seats and warm up!  That last 1/4 of the plastic cup disappeared in less than 1/4 of a second.  

Now I can start lifting weights again!  For the month of May I really couldn’t find the time to do both .. lift weights at the gym and get in the training walks.  So, I’ll be starting up my walks again getting ready for the Portland Marathon in October, but it won’t be a crash course trying to get ready after the long, cold winter.  I have the summer to walk … and find time to heft some iron.