Fun with Hills

Just as I am making peace with training and running for a half marathon, I go out this morning for 10 miles with one guy who just finished a marathon last weekend and two others who finished an ultra - 50 miles! - the weekend before. They all are thinking about running Kansas City's marathon -- in less than a month. Wahoo!! -- the full marathon and not the half!

I think my legs, knees and ankles would actually fall off instead of just aching if I tried anything close to such a stunt.

I contemplated the meaning of all this -- for once I think they just might be the crazy ones instead of me -as we ran a beautiful course near Lake Jacomo in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Beautiful scenery and beautiful weather and a beautiful course -- if you like hills.

Tried to capture the roller-coaster like elevation with a snapshot from my Garmin. I obviously am in need of some training for producing images for the Web because the quality isn't great. If you get a magnifying glass out you can see for yourself. But trust me, they were steep.

Weighty concerns

Never trust a skinny chef, goes the adage.

That may be true. But it’s a problem, I tell you, when that wanna-be chef also aspires to be at least a decent runner.

I’ve been cooking up a storm lately and my eating habits have become a disaster area. I am carrying the extra pounds to prove it.

This weekend, for example, I had a craving for New England clam chowder. I didn’t add all of the half and half called for in the recipe, but I am sure it was enough. Plus I didn’t skimp on the bacon. But my was it tasty.

The littlest Ozling has become quite intrigued by football, particularly the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning. The game was on TV so I thought it would be fun to grab some grub and watch the game. I cooked a pizza and made some queso dip for a little pig-out session while watching the Colts beat the Titans. Not exactly gourmet fare, but it too was tasty.

Then that night I made some Chicken Parmigiana. This was not nearly as bad nutritionally as some recipes for this dish. Instead of breading and frying the chicken, I dabbed the chicken cutlets in some olive oil and herbs. Then I sautéed them for a few minutes, placed them in a baking dish, dribbled some marinara sauce over them and sprinkled some mozzarella and parmesan. Placed them in a hot oven to get the cheese bubbling, serve with some rigatoni and broccoli. Again, tasty. Notice a theme developing here?

Oh, and a chocolate chip pound cake also caught my eye in a food magazine so I helped one of the Ozlings bake one of our own. Mmmm….

I am a big fan of microbreweries and Kansas City has a great one, Boulevard Brewing. They have a delicious Lunar Ale that has been advertised all over town. I decided to give it a try. Yumm. After nearly eschewing the brew for much of the summer, a frosty glass filled with Lunar Ale was quite a treat. I still have half the six pack left, but I couldn’t resist pouring one when I made my version of Philly Steak sandwiches last week.

This seems to be my MO. Deny myself treats or special meals for long stretches. Then as I ramp up the exercise I go around starving all the time. Eventually, I give in and satisfy a craving. The problem is I keep going. It was so fun to satisfy one craving, why not another? And another?

I have rallied at least a little this week. Cooking decent family dinners is a big deal to me. No. 1, we need to gather at the end of the day as a family if at all possible. No. 2, the food should be good for us and (remember the theme?) tasty.

I prepared a dish of sautéed shrimp with cannellini the other night and last night whipped up some chicken quesadillas with black beans. Not too bad, I guess. But I did finish the evening last night with a slice of chocolate chip pound cake. Mmmmmm.

As far as the running goes, this has been a cutback week. 3 on Monday, 6 on Tuesday and a relatively easy 4 this morning. The schedule calls for 10 on Saturday. I am getting excited about the Half Marathon. One month to go!

A fine fall run

By the end of last week, my legs were drained, my knees were creaking and my foot was riddled with some troubling twinges.

This all seemed to be the result of some big miles. Big, at least, by the standards of my training schedule for the upcoming Kansas City Half Marathon.

I had logged 4 on Monday, 8 on Tuesday and 6 on Thursday. The whole point of scaling back and going for a half instead of a full marathon was to ease some of the pounding on my body.

Was even this training schedule too much?

I drove over to Lawrence in the wee hours Saturday to meet up with the group. We were going to run a bit through the KU campus and then jump on the levee trail along the Kansas River. My plan was to go for 13 miles.

As I got out of the car it was a nippy 44 degrees with a stiff wind. This is the beauty of the Midwest. It was barely a week ago that I risked heat stroke while going for a long run and now suddenly I was in danger of hypothermia.

After about the first mile I warmed up and didn’t regret heading out in a t-shirt and shorts. I felt OK. My foot wasn’t giving me trouble and I had a decent amount of giddy up in the legs.

The rain and the chilly temps provided plenty of motivation after I made the turn. I logged a series of 8:30s for at least 5 of the miles on the way in. I started thinking about how good a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich would taste on the way home.

It was a beautiful run.

Too much barbecue?

Last night, I chuckled out loud while reading a book and realizing others had previously pondered the contrast between athletically vibrant regions and Kansas City.

Buck O’Neil, one of this region’s truly treasured sons, was struck by the observation during a visit to California.

Riding along in a car on his way to an appearance, Buck looked at the “San Diego palm trees and the beautiful joggers,” according to one of the many wonderful anecdotes Joe Posnanski wrote about the Negroes League legend and gentle man in “The Soul of Baseball.”

“In my neighborhood in Kansas City, you need a fat belly to go jogging,” Buck said. “Not here. Why are all these skinny people running?”

Good morning to you, and you, and you and....

Sadly, Kansas City is not likely to be a contender for America’s fittest city anytime soon.
A cause for even greater sadness: the city has been known to garner a high ranking on the list of the fattest cities.

Check out these Men's Fitness magazine rankings from a couple years ago:

THE TOP 10 FATTEST CITIES of 2006 (with their 2005 ranking in parenthesis):
1. Chicago (5)
2. Las Vegas (9)
3. Los Angeles (21 fittest)
4. Dallas (6)
5. Houston (1)
6. Memphis, Tenn. (4)
7. Long Beach, Calif. (20)
8. El Paso, Texas (11)
9. Kansas City, Mo. (18)
10. Mesa, Ariz. (15)

When traveling to places such as Denver and San Francisco, the vivid difference jumps out right away with a simple glance. Denver’s Washington Park, for example, has been jam packed with walkers, runners, Rollerbladers and bicyclists when I have gotten in my miles there while on a road trip.

Unless it’s an organized race, I rarely see that volume of fellow runners out and about when I am closer to home.

That’s why I was surprised this morning when I encountered so many more runners than usual. I extended my route into Kansas City’s Brookside neighborhood and onto the Trolley Trail as I logged an eight-mile training run. I was passing oncoming runners and encountering others on the trail and surrounding streets throughout the run.

Granted, it was not a necessarily a huge number of runners. Just a lot more than the half dozen at most that I usually see.

It was dark – gloriously chilly (Hooray for the arrival of Fall!!) – and barely past 5 a.m. That time of the morning remains reserved for the few, the dedicated, the crazy?, and the near-nocturnal fitness freaks. It’s the only time of the day I have any hope of controlling. In the evening, often times I get delayed at the office, re-directed to one of the Ozling’s extracurricular activities or engaged in preparing the family’s dinner so an end-of-the-day workout isn’t practical for me.

I enjoy the opportunity to put in some miles and get lost in my thoughts in the early hours of the day. Saturday’s are the time I like to gather with a larger group and chat while on a longer run.

So while I am not necessarily looking for conversation on my weekday mornings, it is nice to see evidence in the form of fellow runners that I am not totally whacked out for stumbling from a comfortable bed to work up a sweat and pound the pavement.

The optimist in me wants to believe that the additional runners I saw this morning indicate a growing fitness-embracing trend in the Kansas City area. If we can keep it up, maybe the next time some fitness magazine crunches the numbers, we could shed our ignoble ranking.

Welcome back legs

My eyes popped open in the wee hours Thursday.

As I stared at the dark outside and at an alarm clock indicating that it was not yet 4 a.m. – way too early, even for me -- I wondered whether my legs were up for a jaunt. I also started going over the struggle to squeeze in all of my planned long runs, Cub Scout outings, family camping trips and other assorted obligations over the next month leading up to the half marathon.

The upcoming weekends are going to be hectic, but my thoughts focused on the concern of the moment. How were my legs?

A few minor aches and twinges. But a lot better.

After pondering life's questions big and small and staring into the darkness for an hour, the clock said 5:00.

Let’s run.

Got out the door and, indeed, I felt pretty good.

Take it easy, take it easy. Just work out a few kinks.

After about a mile, I took stock and found no aches and plenty of juice. Set it on cruise control. The schedule called for six. I was thinking I would do about four. But at the two-mile turnaround, I felt so good that I decided to press onward. Maybe 5? Aww, what the heck. Let’s do 6.

As it turned out, the last mile felt a little sluggish. But it was good to get out there.

I was heading out of town later that morning for a business trip. Stretching my legs felt good as I faced the prospect of a three-hour drive. Now we’ll get to see whether I am truly back in action as I go for 10 to 12 on Saturday.

Pffft

Amazing how much can be masked by a surge of adrenaline and the glow of good feelings.

As I floated through the rest of the day Monday pondering my PR, I thought my legs felt pretty good. Maybe I could run the 6 miles on the schedule for Tuesday. I tossed the football around out front with the little Ozling and puttered around the house.

Then about 5 o’clock, my vibrant legs suddenly turned into sluggish tubes of sand. The power of adrenaline eventually wears off. Not surprisingly, I was tired.

I slept in on Tuesday and took the day off from running. When I went out today, I felt a little sluggish, but not too bad. I took it easy for the first one or two miles and then I started feeling good. I got into a rhythm and moved nicely through 4 ½.

Then….pfft. Like air leaving a tire, the energy seeped out of my legs. Moving up a slight incline took a lot of effort. I just dialed it back – or at least I thought I did. The Garmin now shows I was running sub-9-minute miles – and tried to focus on my form and finish the run.

As I clocked 6 miles I was about half a mile from home. I walked it in.

The schedule called for 6 miles on Tuesday and 6 on Thursday. I was thinking I might do 6 and 6 on Wednesday and Thursday, rest Friday and then do my long run on Saturday.

We’ll have to see. I think I’ll let my legs be the guide when I wake up tomorrow rather than obsessively follow the mandate of a piece of paper.

Was it the shoes?

Throughout the summer I have been doing mental checks comparing how I feel this year versus last. Less pain. Stronger. Feeling good.

Today I had a chance to test myself. I passed.

We have a local race that offers a good chance to post a fast time. It’s a fairly flat course at the Headache and Pain Center Labor Day 5K in Leawood, Kansas.

I wanted to run at least 7:15 miles today.

At mile 1 I checked the Garmin and it showed a 7:03. So far so good. A little too fast?

The course started in a park. As we were heading down the entrance road, a deer poked her head out of a line of bushes. Startled to see the thundering herd of runners, the doe freaked out, bolted from the bushes and then ran away. An unusual sight for a road race.

We had to do a u-turn at about 1.6 miles. I slowed down a little, but then picked up the pace. I clocked mile No. 2 in 7:05. Still feeling good. How much is left in the tank?

How do I feel? Pretty good. Hmmmm. Let’s maintain pace. Maybe turn it up a notch?

I cranked it up and ran hard. Not all out, but I was cruising. Started to feel the energy fade in the last couple tenths of a mile. Then I heard the cries of encouragement from the Oz family and some members from The Runner’s Edge group I run with on Saturdays.

Suck it up. Turn on the jets, at least as much jets as this middle-of-the-pack runner can claim.

I was hoping to do better than last year’s 22:19. I saw the clock ticking toward 22. Push, push, push.

The new Mizunos feel a lot lighter than my old pair.

I crossed in 21:57. I’ll take it.

Call me Mr. Sunshine

My fears that I would be stricken with a case of the flying yarkies, a severe bout of the trots or just a nasty round of strep throat were overly alarmist.

No huge surprise.

I must admit a tendency to imagine the worst and then almost experience surprise when it doesn't turn out that badly. I know. I'm a regular Mr. Sunshine, no? A massive tree in the back yard -- an elm, I think -- has been shedding huge swaths of bark from various limbs. I was convinced the thing was a goner. Visions of huge limbs crashing down on our roof, taking down power lines, have played out in my head countless numbers of times. When the time comes to chop the sucker down, it's going to cost some bigtime cash.

Mrs. Oz had the tree guy come over to take a look at our Maple zapped during the storm the other day. She wanted to make sure it was stable. Turns out the Maple is going to be fine. The elm is OK, too. Several limbs were trimmed improperly by previous owners, exposing sheets of bark to the elements in a way that allows rain to soak in and cause the bark to depart. The tree should be fine, according to the tree guy.

The weather finally broke. Hooray for fall. What a beautiful morning. Ran 9 miles in DeSoto, Kansas. What a cool trail. Fun run. Love the new shoes. They feel so light. I'm feeling good as I get ready for Monday's Labor Day 5K.

The trees are fine. The Oz family had some minor upset tummies and some mildly sore throats for a few days. Fall is here.

We've avoided disaster.

For now. (Just kidding.) (Sort of.)