Is it Hades or Haiti?

Which ever it is, it's pretty hot there... and it's just as hot here too!

Weather in this city is shit. Chicago has 2 seasons: Winter and Summer. We go from bitter cold to blistering hot over night. OK, that's a lie. There's like a 2 week window on either side when we get pleasant 60 degree temps. All other times of the year, we're either below 50 or above 80.

Last week, I was bitching about having to run in TWO SHIRTS. This week, every run is a shit show with 90+ degrees. That switch got flipped last Friday. Summer's here until mid October. Now I'm not complaining - because I do looove the heat and the summer - but man, I feel like that heat's gonna kill many of my hard workouts this season.

Monday's tempo was brutal. Easily mid-80's. 5 mi, averaging probably 5:50's... excluding warm up and cool down. Most of the other guys went 6 or 7 miles. I have no idea how they managed. At least I managed to negative split the run as the last three miles were sub 5:45.

Last night, Chris and I struggled through 10x400's. The surface of the track had to be about 90-95 degrees. I was dripping buckets of sweat the moment my heart started beating north of 120. We were pretty steady though... splits were mostly 74-75's. A couple 73's. The heat took it's toll and we had to go from 60 sec recoveries, up to 75, then 90 seconds by the last couple.

After both of those hard workouts and a 9 day streak... my longest in probably 3 months... my hip has tightened up a bit. Not horrible, but defintely to the point that I need to give it a break. Taking today off. Hopefully a little rest will get let me bounce back on Friday feeling fresh.

Slowly but surely the rabbit returns

I've now had 3 weeks back in the 40's, and so far so good. No new injuries. Still some tightness in my hip, but the pain is significantly less aggravating than a few weeks ago. For the most part, my runs have all been "painless" (I don't want to say 100% pain free, but the pain has definitely been less noticeable)... So far, a successful come back from some very garbage post-marathon/injury mileage.

The only major problems is that I still feel physically out of shape. My cardio is no where near where it was. Just lots of easy runs, no major quality or speed... but my fitness is starting to show improvement and a come back.

My diet has consistently been garbage lately too. I'm easily 5+ pounds heavier than when I ran Boston. That's not a bad thing... but I feel like I need to give up some excess junk like cappuccinos, garbage carbs, alkihol, eating out, and too much cheese. Too much fat. I need more lean. Oh how I love my cheese though! At times, I think I'm single handily keeping Baker Cheese in business.

One noteworthy run: Last Saturday's 15 miler was much easier than the previous 15. It was during the first hot day of the year too (easily 80 w/ some intense sun). The first several miles were around 7:15 pace... then Claudia and I started to slowly pick it up. About 6 miles were at 6:45 or faster. I felt strong the whole way... though the dehydration and lack of gatorade hurt by the end. That was my first "solid" run in months as I actually felt my endurance coming back.

This week I should be above 50 miles. A good tempo run tonight, another 15/16 at the end of the week... and get this... an Old Man Mile on Saturday night. ...Sure to be a shit show given my lack of speed lately, but fun nonetheless.

Electric Boogaloo Wins Again!

MC200

My EB posse and I competed in a relay race from Madison to Milwaukee to Chicago last weekend. 203 miles, 36 legs split between 12 guys (14, including 2 VERY dedicated van drivers).

We won for the second year in a row. 20hrs, 43 min. A blazing 6:08 pace!

On a side note: A 203 mile relay race is a pain in a ass! When you're running, you're trying to maintain 1/2 marathon -or faster- pace. When you're not running, you're driving to the next exchange area where runners cycle through the line-ups. All the while, you're crammed in a sweaty, stinky, trash filled van with a bunch of other dudes... The only time for stretching is when you're out cheering for teammates. Warm-ups and cool-downs are a joke. You get no sleep. Food is garbage. Your body is constantly in race mode (ie, very dehydrated and shitting non stop). After 15+ hours, it takes a huge toll. You get extremely sore, tired, slap-happy, and cranky.... and you have to keep racing!

Last year, we ran with 9 guys (rotating the line-up 4 times each). This year we ran with 12 guys (3 legs each). It was significantly hotter last year, which really took a toll on our 4 legs... Simple math would say that it should've been easier with 12 guys this year, than 9 guys last year.... but I swear this year was equally, if not more difficult than last year.

Maybe for me, it's because I'm still just coming back after Boston and my hip troubles? Maybe I just didn't like being late in the line-up, and waiting longer for my final leg? Either way, last year or this year... the final legs hurt! There's something about staying up for 36 hours while doing intense physical activity. It isn't what I'd call fun. We were all pretty spent by the time we got to the finish line at Montrose Harbor.

Of course I can whine about it after the fact... but the victory was totally worth it! The sweet's not so sweet without some bitter.



There were about 115 teams in the race. We started at 4pm with 4 other teams. The 110 other teams started a little earlier in the day. Starts were staggered so that slower teams went earlier, and ideally everyone crossed the finish line relatively close to one another.

Our goal was to 1) claim overall victory in the race for the second year in a row, and 2) be the first team to finish line, road killing everyone else.

Our line-up:
1 - Johnny Lance Romance
2 - Pflipper Kepler
3 - Monster Martineau
4 - Kfan...dell
5 - Paulie Johnston
6 - Mark the kid Wehrman
7 - Hi Guy wanna be, Chris Woods
8 - Dan the hairless McDowell
9 - Eric Shak 'n Baker
10 - Verdo Giorty
11 - Jason Creamer
12 - Rabbit


After the first couple legs, only 1 of the teams starting with us put up a fight. The other teams were very respectable, but we were averaging sub 6:00 min miles through the first 2 rotations... that's kind of aggressive, given a 203 mile race!

Courgar Running Club became our challenger. They're from the western Chicago burbs... a bunch of college and high school punks with muscles made of rubber. We were the old farts (or at least in their eyes)... but with miles and marathons of experience on our legs.

Through the first rotation, the Cougars were actually ahead of us by about 20 seconds! The lead had exchanged number of times. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we didn't think it would be this intense. We were actually sweating it. In spite of having a few very solid college runners though (even faster than us), the cumulative distance running favored us. We knew eventually at least some of their team would crumble. It was just a matter of miles and time.

By the end of the second rotation we were up by about 3 minutes, and running in some steady rain and humidity. Far from a comfortable lead, given there were 70+ miles to go... but it was a small improvement over the first rotation.
Late in the second rotation, the Cougars technically disqualified themselves by illegally changing their line up. That didn't really matter to any of us though. We still were adamant about beating them. This thing had gotten ultra competitive. Emotions were flying. We were sweaty, soaking wet from the rain, and had ~7 hours uf running ahead of us. Both teams were clearly stressed. The easy road kills were starting to roll in at this point, but that no longer mattered. We wanted Cougar blood, and they weren't going down without a fight.

Going into the last few legs of the race, we held the lead but it was difficult to tell the spread... it could've been 5 minutes... 10 minutes...? We weren't sure. The kicker was they had some solid studs for closers. In the first leg, they sunk about 3 minutes on Jason and I over 15 miles... which meant they could handle sub 5:30's without a problem, and possibly do it again. We needed a 10 minute lead to feel comfortable.

I had no idea how much cushion I had as I took the final leg. I got the baton from Jason and just started rolling with a constant eye over my shoulder. I was tired and dehydrated. I knew I could maintain 6's, but I needed to save a little energy in case I had to throw down 5:30's. It was like an invisible hand behind me at all times. In my mind, all of the previous 20 hours and 195 miles had come down to 2 runners and 8 miles. At finish though, the sweat went for naught... we claimed the victory by about 22 minutes! All but 1 road kill was caught by the end... but it didn't matter, because Back2Back baby!


Ultimately our experience did prevail. I mean come on, our average marathon time between all 12 of us is probably 2:50 - and we all have MULTIPLE marathons under our belts. What do they got... a few 5Kers?? I definitely give them props though. It was close, and could've probably been closer. Give them a couple years though, and those cougar cubs will grow up to be menacing lions.


We inked ourselves into the Great Midwest Relay / MC200 Results once again:

Year - Overall Winning Team - Time - Distance
2005 - Fleet Feet Chicago - 20:42:51 (6:27 pace) - 192.4 mi
2006 - Stephanie Skladzien - 21:52:44 (6:54 pace) - 190 mi
2007 - Victorious Secret - 19:55:45 (6:17 pace) - 190 mi
2008 - Fleet Feet Electric Boogaloo - 21:31:40 (6:27 pace) - 203 mi
2009 - Fleet Feet Electric Boogaloo - 20:43:37 (6:08 pace) - 203 mi

3 out of the 5 years running, our Fleet Feet team as dominated this event.

Here's copy from the Electric Boogaloo Twitter:

8:12 AM Jun 12th - Time to cowboy up!
8:34 AM - 40% chance of precip in Milly - WAU - KEE tonight - we might be able to out-run this thing.....PJ's house at 11 bells, the party begins.
10:00 AM - In 6 hours, we'll be burning the streets of madtown!
10:39 AM - Waiting for the other boogalooers.
11:47 AM - JoJo, the boys and the vans are headed to Madison.
11:53 AM - Getting lost on a detour.
12:05 PM - Kathy just mooned a 'Benz.
12:18 PM - Approaching Schlongburg... no time to stop at Ikea tho.
12:41 PM - Listening to one of Ken's cds. awesome!!
1:01 PM - J - you have to see a doctor about that.
1:24 PM - Made it to the land of cheese.
1:51 PM - Saw road sign for gentlemans club: chasin chubbi's.
2:03 PM - I'm been driving 3 hrs from Chicago, you just have to get into it.
3:02 PM - Wally World done. Death star approaching the hotel.
4:04 PM - And were off, lance is bringing up the rear.
4:53 PM - Phlip closed the gap.
5:50 PM - Lance picked off 2, Phlip took 1, monster took the lead.
6:35 PM - 2nd place after leg 5. The cougars are feeling confident. Suckers!
7:03 PM - Van 2 is killin time.. Cw is getting ready.
7:24 PM - Stride for stride through 6.
8:06 PM - Is Dan killing cougar?? Time will tell if we're allowed to mark our 4th road kill. Still havent caught the earlier runners.
8:08 PM - Baker shakin and bakin! Dan gave him 1:30 lead... Cougars are for real right now though.
9:27 PM - Pulling away slowly, new roadkill have been sighted.
10:45 PM - Through 1 rotation- tight race, Cougars brought out the college boyz for the last legs.
10:52 PM - We've got a race! Thru the first 12 runners, we were 20 seconds in 2nd place. They got solid closers!
11:42 PM - After 14 legs we're back about 2 minutes.

12:03 AM Jun 13th - After 15 we're up about 3 minutes.
1:46 AM - Thru 18 - 15 secs up. This is going to be work.
2:39 AM - 20 seconds up after woods... both teams got lost for about 2 mi!
3:17 AM - After Danny boy, solid minute.
3:58 AM - Man down on Cougar's!! They're moving runners up 1 slot. Lance's guy will go 4 legs.
3:58 AM - Thru baker, Verdo had a 245 lead.
4:01 AM - Verdo's guy down, so their studs slide up. Pay attention to your competition!
4:16 AM - Verdo put the smack down. about 4 min spread.
4:18 AM - Their guy is getting stopped by a train crossing!!!
5:23 AM - Competition DQ'd. We are still trying to finish first though.
5:25 AM - There's no trying about it. we MUST beat them to the finish line!
5:26 AM - Lance was in the toilet when his leg started. About 4 min spread.
7:19 AM - Up by 4 min over the DQ'd Cougars after leg 27.
7:27 AM - Cougars DQ'd when injured runner went down, then illegally changed roster.
7:27 AM - ~40 roadkills out there to be had. We must finish first.
8:03 AM - Last leg for van 1. ~5 min lead. Less than 30 roadkill left.
8:04 AM - FF rock steady in our sights.
8:32 AM - Entered ILL.
8:49 AM - 22 to go.
9:13 AM - 15 to go. Go Dan.
9:18 AM - Why so serious, Robert?
9:20 AM - Road killing at its best right now!!
10:04 AM - Dan picked off 8, 7 to go Baker.
10:06 AM - Watchin some talent.
10:30 AM - Three legs to go. At least 8 minute lead.
10:48 AM - 3 more roadkill ahead. They have 22 min lead.
11:22 AM - Somehow we got a girl in our van. And she immediately started stripping!
11:30 AM - Another road kill down.
12:00 PM - Last leg. Go get'tem rabbit. Our championship awaits.
12:12 PM - Roadkill sighted. Robert it's yours.
1:00 PM - Back2back.
3:09 PM - After party at Emerald Loop 6:00.

A reintroduction to Lactic Acid

Last night was the first time I've run "fast" since the week before Boston, or about 2 months. During that previous tempo run, my hip tightened significantly mid-run and I was reduced to a painful walk.

This time around, no troubles whatsoever. I was fatigued and my lungs felt like they were on fire, but otherwise no mechanical problems. My hip actually felt completely normal during the run. A necessary jump start to my training, and it turned out to be a success. I did tighten up a bit on the cool down and I'm a little sore today, but nothing like the pain I was previously having.

In the last several days, I've had 2 key runs: the "15 mile wake up call", and the "welcome back tempo".

Whenever I start to pick my miles back up, these two runs are complete bitches. My body’s not quite ready to handle the lactic acid, and by the end I’m cashed. They feel like they're some of my worst runs - but they're major confidence builders.

15 shouldn't be much different than 13 miles. If I haven't run that distance in a few months though, that extra time on my feet becomes significantly more difficult. The long run becomes a mental and physical battle as it stretches beyond an hour and a half. On Saturday, I wanted to throw in the towel after twelve miles. My feet were dragging and the last miles felt like a death march. Experience told me though, deep down I'd be stronger on the other side if I just sucked it up and focused on putting one foot in front of the other.

Likewise, that first tempo burns. After only a few miles, the intensity will leave you gasping for air and your muscles feeling like concrete.
...Last night, the first mile felt great. I was rolling. 1.5 miles, and I was getting a comfortably fast turnover. 2 miles, and still feeling alright. In reality though, only 25% of the work was done. 2.5 miles, and “Ugh.” I started having doubts of how long I could actually maintain. At 3 miles, I was dying. I couldn't breathe. I was thinking of how hungry and thirsty I was. I needed fuel. Less than 6 minutes to go though. At 3.5 miles, "Suck it up, pussy! Time to throw down." I was toasted by the end. The 75 degree heat and humidity didn't help. It was only 4 miles - a complete joke compared to a few months ago, but the reality is: a starting point for the next step forward.

The 15 miler and the LT Threshold / Tempo runs are hands down, some of my best workouts. The first time through sucked, but they built mental and physical strength and endurance. They forced me to embrace my lactic acid, and going forward I'll learn to manage it more efficiently. That was a much needed kick in the ass to get me rolling again.

3 times a charm

In the last 3 weeks, I've had 3 very deep tissue massages from the master of disaster, which have been very successful at loosening up the junk around my iliac crest... I've had 3 acupuncture sessions, which the last one had a pretty funky e-stim applied to some of the needles (my initial reaction was oouch, but it really did force a couple of the muscles to release and reset)... and I've had some success doing some of my own massage work to help loosen up my glutes a lot more.

All of that combined: my last 3 runs have all been the most pain free runs that I've had since the week before the Cary 1/2 marathon! ...that's nearly 3 months!!

I'm trying to keep a level head and keep the reins in, because I know I'm not 100% yet - there's still a lot of stiffness and soreness in my hip - but running actually feels good again and I want to roll.

All of the miles lately have been in somewhat easier, in the 6:45-7:15 range as I'm still trying to get my turnover and endurance back. This week will finally be 40+ miles again. Then assuming all system's go... there's no turning back. I'll start to reintroduce some light speed next week, MC200 next weekend, and back in the 60's in a few more weeks.

They'll call it a come back

I've been lazy about updating my running log lately. Mostly because I've wanted to chill out and ignore the training for a little while (which has pretty much been impossible). It’s all part of the recovery process after Boston.

Since the marathon, I've been trying to rehab my hip. The troubles have centered around extremely tight muscles / tendons along my iliac crest.... both in the front by the TFL, glute medius, and along the small of my back with the QL. It literally has felt like guitar strings coming off the top of my hip bone, going down into some of those muscles and towards the actual hip socket (greater trochanter).

I've gone through a number of physical therapy sessions, a lot of deep tissue massage work, and even a few acupuncture sessions. Ultimately, we still don't know what the main culprit has been, but we can say that the cause of the problem stems from A) weak glute medius, B) the tendonitis in my right ankle, which was obtained about a year ago from a subluxed cuboid, and C) the fact that I sit almost all day long while at work.

As of now, it does feel better than a few weeks ago, but its far from 100%.


In the process, my mileage has been lame. I basically felt the need to take a few weeks off, while only running once or twice a week. I’ve been working out a bit more often, but otherwise haven’t been doing much cardio. I started to pick it back up again two weeks ago w/ a couple of 30 mile weeks. It's sad because I feel like I’ve gone from being on top of my game, right back to square 1... Shorter distances right now are a struggle for me.

I know it'll come back, but I have to be patient. I lumbered through the Soldier Field 10 Miler last weekend just for the sake of doing it... I was far from being able to race it, but I at least wanted to show up and place in the top 15 for my age group (stupid CARA points!). 63:32 was good enough for 14th and 94th overall.... a far cry from my 10 mile PR - set in the Cary 1/2 Marathon ~58:18.

SO, baby steps for now as things are starting to feel a little better... I’ll gradually roll some of the miles back up ahead of the MC200 (June 12-13th). After that, I still have some time before I really need to jack things up for the Chicago Marathon. October 11th is officially 20 weeks away. This will be my 10th marathon.