This was last year’s Firecracker 5k: I am wearing red. I powerwalked it in just under 34 minutes (by the chip); the couple boxed in yellow ran it slightly faster than I (by the chip). But we finished at about the same time as you can see.
I saw them at the packet pick up (they were getting into their car) and I said “hi.”
This year, I am doomed to be slower as I’ve had no speedwork to speak of and even a 13:30 pace (in practice) is moderately challenging. But I hope to improve on the 38:30 that I walked this spring.
Ah, my first Firecracker was a 26:53 4 miler in 1981 and my first time at THIS race I ran 20:40 for 5k (in 1998). I also had a 42 minute 10K in 1982 and a 5:59 road mile in 1999 (last sub 6 mile ever).
On the other hand, 3 years ago, I was in too much pain to even walk a 5K, period, so there is that.
Today’s workout
Easy 4 mile walk (16 minutes per mile)
Yesterday’s Baseball I am still shaking my head. The Chiefs bombarded the Cubs 21-2 behind 21 hits and 5 Cubs errors. This was the most runs the Chiefs have scored at Dozer (though they once gave up 21 runs). The stage was set with a massive moon-shot of a grand slam in the 4’th to put the Chiefs up 4-2 (hard to believe that the Cubs actually LEAD for 1/3 of the game) and from then on, the dam burst.
JOSH KROSS UNLOADS THE BASES WITH A GRAND SLAM!!! 🚀🔥
Note: the account holder DOES post some good stuff; I can recommend the account to runners. But..
“Excuse?” I suppose I can interpret that as him talking to someone who WANTS to do a marathon but is trying to talk themselves out of it. And, to be fair, that might apply to a group of people that is larger than the group that I am in.
And, no, I was not good at it. My PR as a runner is 3:33 in 1980, master’s is 3:38 in 2000. I did several as a walker (walking 100 percent of the time) and my last time was in 2019; it took me 6:42 (walker)
No, I am never saying “never again”, but given the tenuous health of my knees (currently tolerating 10 miles fairly well) and lumbar, I am NOT doing a marathon in the foreseeable future. And that is right decision, for ME at my current stage in life. Now, if I drop from 195 lb to, say, 178 lb…who knows? Right now, 10 miles is very comfortable but I’ll need 18-20 miles to feel that way before I start looking. It *could* happen, though I don’t see it as likely.
But here is my point: I did my first marathon when I was 21 and, frankly, I did not know what I was doing. But I was doing 15 miles at 7:40-8 minutes a mile, and could do a 5:30 one mile and a 19:20 3 mile (just at 20 for a 5k) and had run for sports for YEARS. I did not go from “couch to marathon.”
I honestly think that way too many never give their bodies a chance to adjust to running first and end up walk/jogging/shuffling to a 6 hour plus marathon.
And, well, the marathon is hardly the pinnacle of running achievement. For example, a 22 minute 5k is much better accomplishment than a 5 hour marathon.
As an aside, I talked to the young man who fit me for walking shoes. It turns out that he is pretty proud of his sub 2 minute 800, and he SHOULD be. That is harder than people think.
Yesterday: I went to the rock island trail. I did get bothered by some entitled pricks that did “sideways” parking to keep others away from their newish Lexus (I was about to go home, else I would have made it a point to park right next to them)
But those on the trail were super polite…even the e-bike riders! Yes, one of my “irrationally mad at something that is none of my business and isn’t at all wrong” things is getting mad at those who ride e-bikes on a trail that isn’t used for commuting. (I think they are great for commuters). As far as the walk itself: high 15’s to low 16’s on the way out, sub 15 on the way back for 1:34:44 (15:02) for 6.3. This was 4:20 slower than on June 12, but it was 81 F, 54 percent humidity at the finish. Not terrible, but not as cool as the shade made it feel.
Today: weights at 2 miles (2.05?) in 29:54.
Weights: pull ups/chin ups: 5 sets of 6, 8, 6, 6, penalty set of 5. Did several “chin up style” and several “pull up style”. This was AFTER PT; they went better today. Basement: low trap bar: 10 x 134, 10 x 184 (just to get stretched) bench: 10 x 134 inline: 3 sets of 6 x 134 (got ’em all) supported dumbbell shoulder press: 3 sets of 10 x 40 (each hand)
Peoria Chiefs
Watching the Chiefs is my “happy space.” I love it. And last night, a good, all around sharp team effort lead to a 5-1 win over the South Bend Cubs. The Chiefs pitchers shut the Cubs out after the first inning.
It was an extra fun night for me because Barbara, Vickie, Harry, and Jacob were there.
But this weekend: I saw the Chiefs win 4-0 on a day when the whole team looked sharp. Then on Sunday, they got bombed 10-0. It was 3-0 when the Chiefs put in a usually reliable short term reliever-closer who got bombed out of the box. It was soon 8-0 after 4 and it never got better.
I guess some just go to be with their loved one.
Book notes: I am reading an Inspector Morse novel. Early on, the author describes a woman’s nightgown by using an offensive racial slur as a modification for the color brown. This was written in 1979! Evidently, this was a common practice at the time (I looked it up). Wow..that was 46 years ago and this was from a different country (UK) but, at least modern dictionaries describe that as being “taboo” and “offensive.” I admit that this startled me a bit.
Workout notes: Sunday: I did a slow 5 mile walk (16:32 pace) and it actually felt good; it took some of Saturday’s stiffness away.
Monday (today) 2 mile slow walk with weights.
pull ups were a CHORE. 9 sets of 5, one of 7, no set felt super good. I did PT in between sets, outside. downstairs: Bench: 17 reps of 134, 3 sets of 7 x 150. 4 inch trap bar: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 228, 10 x 244 high incline: 10 x 94, 6 x 105, 6 x 105 curls: 3 sets of 10. I honestly got a small pump in this workout.
Thursday: Very hot. I started just after 7:20 and ended after 9: my 6.2 mile “5 hill plus a Moss ave. mini loop” course in 1:46:22 (16:59 pace!) I just didn’t want to put any effort into it. And I had a run in with a loose pit bull on Parkside “oh, he never does that…” a “beautiful person’s” dog. I said a few cuss words. But that was NOT my slowest mile!
Friday: easy 17:20 pace 2.2 mile on campus after some weights. Pull ups: a struggle: 5 sets of 6, 8, two sets of 6 mixed grip. I am doing more “chin up” style. Bench: 10 x 134, 10 x 150 (hard!) incline: 5 x 134, 4 x 134 (missed rep 5) 4 x 134 (missed rep 5) high incline: 2 sets of 10 x 94…this finished me off.
Saturday: 10 miles on the Rock Island: walked to the 0 marker and continued to the very start of the non-pavement portion. Then out to Dunlap, through, turn around at the trail head north of Dunlap (5.3 miles) then back to the Alta trail head. Time:2:42:12; 15:53 pace. It was not hard.
It was 86 F, 58 percent humidity at the end (as opposed to 89, 62 on Thursday) but the shade made it sort-of comfortable. And the pace…well..it was designed to get me through the miles.
A remarkable inning
On Thursday, I watched the Chiefs demolish the Beloit Sky Carp 14-5 to improve to 2-4 (now they are 3-4 for the second half of the season; that is important).
But HOW the did it was remarkable.
The second inning went well; the Chiefs scored 2 with a 2 run home run and a single to drive in another. So it was 3-1 after 2, nothing remarkable about that. But then came the 3’rd. In this inning, the Chiefs reached first base by walks and singles; they had NO extra base hits and the Sky Carp made no errors. There WAS a wild pitch.
But, in this inning, the Chiefs scored 10 runs! There wasn’t enough room on the score board to register the 3’rd inning!
The bull pen held on enough for the Chiefs to win 14-5. But the bottom of the 8’th was interesting. The Sky Carp put in a position player to finish. He hit the first batter and proceeded to throw “lob” pitches.
I have never seen a game quite like this one.
Books
I decided to try to read more, so I bought some fiction from Half Price. I finished the first of these: Moonraker. I’ll say this: this is NOTHING like the Bond movie with the same name, though the villain is named “Drax”, the villain decides to kill bond and the female lead character with the rocket blast (instead of doing it directly) and, of course, tells Bond of his fiendish plan (which, well, is a bit outrageous) prior to leaving them to die.
Of note: it is the female character who first finds out what the plan is by..yes, doing a mathematical calculation! The female character is very capable in the book. And there is another important difference.
Remember the book was written in 1955 when the world was still recovering from WW2 and the Iron Curtain had just come down. The rocket in question was a “atomic capable” glorified, improved V2 type of weapon.
We took off for Texas on Thursday. There was a strange rattle in the car; more on that later. But we made it from Peoria (9 am) to Muskogee, Oklahoma with no issues. But while in Muskogee, the rattle was bothering me, so we took it to the local Toyota dealer. They got right on it: it was a loose muffler exhaust heat shield; they got larger washers to tighten it up. Lots of corrosion underneath.
That delayed our leaving though; we got out roughly 11 am or so. Still, it was a fairly smooth drive to Austin after that, though we did visit a Buc-ee’s just north of Dallas.
We made it to the Southpark Omni late in the evening.
Saturday: the highlight was a trip to Half-price (will read some fiction) and a trip to the Blanton Museum (on the University of Texas campus)
Olivia went back home to ready herself for the workweek and Babs and I had some Ethiopian food.
The next day, we headed to the Woodlans (2:40 away). Amusing: my left foot hurt. It turns out that I had put on two right foot shoes!
That was a fun mini-visit. Mike (Lynnor’s husband) was a good sport.
Then came the trip to Texarkana. Google maps routed out the “quickest route” and that included lots of trips on small roads off of the main highway. That included one case where we actually had a “pilot truck” to get us through a construction zone! It sure was scenic though.
We stopped just south of Little Rock (Arkadelphia) and took the new I-57 out of Little Rock to 67, up through Missouri and around St. Louis. We took the I-270 detour to get to I-55.
Today: I watched the Chiefs lose to the Skycarp 6-4 in a very hot day game. The Chiefs are now 1-4 in the second half of the season.
Thursday, prior to getting on the road: 2.3 in 31:44 (13:48 pace)
Friday: hotel treadmill (non-working incline) 2 miles in 28:30 Saturday: Mabel Davis 3 lap (5.2 miles) in 1:22:29 (15:52). Warm. Laps: 14:27, 14:02, 14:00 Sunday: Mabel Davis 3 lap (5.2 miles) in 1:20:56 (15:34) 14:07, 13:53, 13:37. Note: weight room was closed for renovation Monday: 2.24 miles in 37:53 (16:53); 3 sets of 20 push ups (note: full PT every day) Tuesday: hotel treadmill 2 miles in 27:35 (13:48)
Wednesday: back in town. Walk was a untimed stroll to the Chiefs game and back (3 miles total) weights: pull ups: 6 sets of 5, (changed grip), 8, 6, then 5 mixed, 5 mixed. Alternated overhand and underhand grip and did PT for rest between sets. Bench press: 10 x 134, 5 x 155, 4 x 155, 5 x 155 incline press: 5 x 134 high incline press: 2 sets of 10 x 94 trap bar dead: low 10 x 134, 10 x 184 4 inch: 10 x 224 Then the walk to the game. The walk home was a bit harder; I did the 1.5 route.
Tuesday: slow 8.2 on the Rock Island. I walked to the mile 0, out to mile 4 (slightly short), back to 0 and then to the lot. It was hot (80’s and 63 percent humidity) and it took me 2:14 for 8.21. Yeah, slow. No knee brace.
Today: slow 2 mile walk about campus, weights: 7 sets of 6, one of 8. bench: 10 x 134, 7 x 155 (weak) incline: 3 sets of 5 x 134 Low handle: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 4 x 225 (just not into suffering today)
I have to watch doing too many miles too close together. But the legs feel ok right now.
Sunday: I did my “to the ball field and round the goose loop twice course (10.2-10.3 miles) in 2:49:10. I honestly didn’t care that much; it was never much of an effort. Monday: slow 3.3 mile course, (kind of warm) after some pull ups: 10 sets of 5, one set of 6 (brief rests, most of the PT was before) After the walk, to the weight room downstairs: 10 x 134, 3 sets of 5 x 160 on the bench incline: 5 x 134 (kind of disappointing) supported shoulder press: 3 sets of 10 x 40 (each arm) with dumbbells.
This year, well, was very different from the previous 2 years. For the first time, Tracy and I did it together. It was fun; glad we did it. And Tracy won the 80-84 F age group (open category)
As far as our race: I was going to walk with her and we stayed reasonably steady the whole race, never varying much from 15:10 mpm until the very downhill last mile which got us to the finish line in 1:00:17. I had predicted this time for us.
As far as the race itself: it was different. They started us in “waves” but perhaps not quite as defined as they are in other races. They had the wheelchairs, USATF 4 mile waves (W , M, W master’s, M master’s, then some open waves going at 7:15) and we had a slightly different course and went in reverse of the traditional route.
Obviously, I finished much further back than normal, save for the time when I walked with Barbara, years ago. Yes, I walked last year too, but then my “chip time” was just under 44 and people around me were mostly doing their best.
Now, at an hour, you had “participants”, people posing for photos, people engaging in long phone conversations, people with braces, old people (I saw several octogenarians), overweight people, etc. On the way back..I got to see the swift 15K runners; that was fun. It really is a different world back there.
This was definitely one of the “fun ones.” I am glad I did it and I am glad I did it this way.
Afterward, I sneaked in 3 sets of trap bar deadlifts (low handle this time): 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 225
Steamboat History
1998: 15K 1:08:22 183/844 (sticky) Was running just under 20 for 5K in those days. 22:50/23:05/22:27, 29/71 AG 167/603 men 1999: 15K 1:07:53 187/725, place was a bit worse; roughly 20:40 for 5K in these days 22:38/23:01/22:13 39/76 AG, 170/511 men 2000: 4m 27:51 After a 10K/half marathon double and 1:35 half a few weeks earlier. 2001: 4m 29:13 Lake Geneva Marathon 3:40 2001: 15K 1:11:16 (126/381) Fall 15K 23:20/24:04/23:51 2002: 4m 43:15 (walk) 2002: 15K 1:14:33 (run; fall) 167/405 24:10/25:07/25:16 2004: 4m 33:10 (two 24 hour walks in May; 101 and 88) 2005: 15K 1:23:13 (26:40/27:39/28:43) McNaughton 100 in April, Marathon on Memorial Day. 2006: 4M 42:10 (walk), FANS 24 in June (83 miles) 2007: Walk with Barbara 1:10 2008: Walk with Barbara 1:13 2009: run 1:27:23 (9:22 mpm) Place: 519/726 29:21/29:49/28:43, 34/43 AG 2010: walk 4 miles 39:32. 2011: walk 15 km 1:48:02 37:12/36:24/34:26 2012: run 15 km 1:36:55 29:26/33:54/33:35 679/835 2013: 15K 1:29:04 (29:34/29:53/29:38) 40/50 AG, 552/866 2014: 1:29:57 (29:22/30:46/29:49) 2015: 1:34:28 (30:49/32:49/30:50) (2 weeks after FANS 59.9) 579/804, 376/461 males, 173/219 male masters, 36/43 AG 2016: 1:41:57: 31:40/34:37/35:40 667/822, 413/458 male, 196/221 master male, 30/33 AG. 2017: walk 1:55:52: 37:04/39:41/39:07 Just not in very good shape. 2018: 2:15:55 walk/jog…gave up after 2 miles and mostly walked (22:15). 39:20/48:19/48:16 2019: 1:38:36 31:44/35:12/31:40 (3 loop version, rainy and cool)
Life of an old goat 