Are you following me?

There's a lot to catch up on. A lot I haven't blogged. I've been busy with the Seabrook Marathon website, which should be less active for a while now that all the results are up, and all the pictures are up, and the feedback form is up.

But that's not all I've been up to. Here are just a few of the things I've done and not blogged about.

Ran the Seabrook Marathon Relay with my pals Yong, Heather, and Claudia.

Ran 8.25 miles with the club on the 24th, and even some with my long lost training partner.

Went ice skating on Sunday evening - 1 fall, getting better, less scared.

Ran 5 miles Monday morning.

Can you believe that? I even ran a race and didn't blog it!

Anyway, I brought my running clothes and ran after work this evening. There's a route around campus and down the bayou that is about 10K.

It was just about sunset time, and I got to see some bats flying around down by the bayou, which I thought was cool. I keep meaning to check out the bats around the Waugh Street Bridge. Has anybody seen them? Is it cool?

Anywho, I was running along, on the return trip along the bayou, and by this time it was already dark. Now, the bayou has some nice houses alongside it, and it looks like a nice area, but if you're running in that area at dusk, it will occur to you that only that one row of houses that border the bayou are nice, and the rest... is somewhat less nice. The bars on the doors and windows are a good clue to that.

Well, I'm running along and the first wierd thing I see is the silhouette of a man that apparently had just been laying on the ground. There's a grassy area between the road and the bayou trail, and he had been laying there for some time. As he started walking around it was quite clear that he was completely intoxicated. He was stumbling and stomping around, and it was strange because he was dressed in what looked like a sportscoat and nice pants. How he got there, and how he got so intoxicated so early in the day is a question I had too. He was fairly young, maybe early 20s, and much too drunk to be a real threat to a strapping vibrant young man like myself, but I ran softly anyway until I passed him.

But then there was this other guy, walking on the trail ahead, and he yells out, "Hey white boy!" This other guy was a very large black man, who could have been a threat to me if he wanted to be, but it was clear he was addressing the drunk. "Are you following me?! Are you following me!?" he yells at the drunk man. On and on he yelled, "I saw you over there, when I was there, and now you're here! Are you following me?!" The drunk guy looked completely terrified. There was only yelling though, and I don't think there was ever any real threat to anybody. I think he was just having some fun, messing with the drunk guy. It's fun to mess with drunk people. I understand that.

But anyway, I covered the 6+ miles, and now, with 8 on Saturday, 5 on Monday, and 6 on Wednesday, it's almost starting to look like I'm an actual runner. It feels good to get back into it. I've been running lately, but mostly just the group runs on the weekends. It has been hard to get myself out the door for more miles all by myself. I'm getting over that though.

Rock on.
Keith.

I like this picture

Strength training in rats. There are bundles of dried spaghetti the rats can reach for and break. They can break more and more after several weeks of training. No other reason to post it, but I like the picture.

While I'm posting random things, I like this picture too.



He's pissed off because there was no reward in the dish.

Anyway. Still running. Posting later.
Keith.

Pictures from the Seabrook Marathon

This was 10 minutes or so before the start of the Half Marathon on Saturday. Can you tell who will win?


JD and Jaclyn finishing the half marathon.


"That medal better be as big as my head!" -- Sarah


I thought you looked familiar! If I was thinking clearly I'd have said "Hello." Sorry Christy! It was nice almost meeting you.


Bob and Tonia catching up.


Bob and Ginger, Ginger and Bob. Bob is about an hour or so away from finishing his own TMC when this picture was taken.


If you look at the high resolution version, you can see Brenda has even pierced her navel. And Lori has a lower back tattoo.

My two favorite pictures of all time. Hi Joe. Actually, this was the only minute where Joe was resting. He was very enthusiastic the whole weekend, but they're still my favorite pictures.

Marathon! This Weekend!

Run, Walk, Cheer, Volunteer.

Follow the rabbit for all the info.

Update.

Ankle's okay. 9.25 miles on Saturday. Got to run with my long lost running partner who's been out with some injuries. All is well. Hope this post wasn't too unsatisfying. But aren't you glad to hear that I'm doing okay? No time. Gotta go.

Rolled my ankle.

Gosh, this week has flown by without much posting.
I ran on Monday night, one lap around Memorial.

Then I ran again on Wednesday, but only one mile before I stepped on a rock and rolled my ankle. It was really bad for a couple of minutes but faded as I walked for a while. The next day it was sore all the way up the side of my calf and it hurts if I bend it too far. I don't think I did any major damage, just strained lots of little things.

I still intend to run with the club tomorrow morning. I'll take it easy and decide after a couple miles if I'm doing more damage than good.

I hope I'll be back to 100% for the Seabrook Marathon Relay next weekend. I'm running the first leg and some friends from work, Yong, Heather, and Claudia will run the others. I think it will be the first road race for all of them. It should be tons of fun.

Mor elater.
Keith.

FYI: Seabrook Marathon almost full...

FYI: The Seabrook Marathon is 95% full for Sunday's races, and 78% full for the Half Marathon on Saturday. 48 people are running both days, including our very own JD, Christy, and Sarah.

If your on the fence, you might just get kicked off it in the next few days (at least for Sunday's race).

Keith.

Dietary Analysis

In an effort to improve my running performance through an improvement in my overall health, I made an effort to first analyze the current state of my diet. As you can see from the flowchart below, it is already pretty good, consisting almost entirely of foods that are, or are decended directly or indirectly from, vegetables.

But seriously though, I don't eat too poorly. Breakfast is usually very good, maybe I'll have some fruit and toast, or maybe I'll have a protein shake. Occasionally an omlette. Lunch has been more difficult, since I haven't been preparing anything and I have to find something here at work. The choices are slim and are mostly at fast-food type places here on campus. Wendy's has some nice chicken salads, but one of those with a drink is about 6$, which is too much for everyday, and it gets boring after a while. You should know, I've stayed away from the ice cream for 18 days already.

So, how can I improve? I guess I should bring my lunches from home. I can make it the day before and not even try to do it in the morning when I'll undoubtedly be running late. Do you eat a healthy lunch? Do you have any suggestions for me?

Keith.

keithrselassie.com "Rewind"
Remember this post? I argued that your cancer risk is related to the viability of your normal cells, rather than just the increased efficiency of the cancerous cells. So, try to avoid carcinogens for sure, but make yourself strong enough to fight it off when it comes.

Clear Lake Fitness Club Spring Program

Get in shape.
Stay in shape.
Improve your speed.

Climbing the rock wall, running the track

Hi America, It's good to see you.

Things have been busy for me the last few days. I visited the climbing wall at UH, which I've never done, and have been putting it off for a year or more. It was a little scary since I might embarrass myself and everyone there seems really good at it already.

Oh, here's a question, when I climb the wall, am I supposed to use the grips for my feet as well?, because that's what I was doing, and there a girl there that was only using the grips for her hands and her feet were going on the very small, sometimes imperceptable, ridges in the face of the rock wall. She was really good, she was like spiderwoman. But there were other people, clearly not as skilled as the one girl, that were stepping on whatever they could too. But maybe it's cheating, maybe the purists don't do it.

I had fun though, it's a difficult workout, especially since my upper body is rubbery and only good for typing. I felt like I made it pretty high, about 6 feet from the point where the auto-belay thing holds you. If you want to go higher you have to have a human belay you and climb on the other section. The handholds get harder as you go up, and it's more strenuous on my hands and forearms than anything else I do. It usually ended when I grab and slip and fall slowly and gently all the way back to the ground.

---

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAanyway. I ran Monday at the UH Recreational Center. 24 laps around the old 360 meter track. I think that's about 5.5 miles, and I ran 12 reps of speed on the short legs in the middle miles. It's interesting to run there because there's lots of people and you can look down on the first floor at the soccer games and basketball games and badminton and racquetball and the rock wall, but it still gets boring after 8 or 10 laps or so. A lot of people run there, but sometimes only like one lap. That's all, they run one lap.

Well, thanks for stopping by. I know you're busy.
See you soon, America.
Keith.

"Live Like Keith" Tip of the Day:
Dream. Plan. Work. (stolen from MonkeyBuddha)

7-point-something with the club

This morning, my long run, something like 7.4 miles or so. I still don't really have a schedule. For the time being I think I'll keep kicking around running what I feel like running. Then for a couple months I'm thinking of settleing in for about 30 mpw, with one 10 miler, a couple 7 milers, and a couple short runs scattered aboot. I also ran 3 on Thursday night, I don't think I blogged it.

I just noticed this morning, when I tried to check my TMC results, that Roger Soler's Sports website esta nonfunctionaldo. I'm sure he's decided to skip town with my $50 and not bother to manage the TMC anymore.

My friend and I are going to go embarrass ourselves on the UH climbing wall today. I've never tried it and since my upper body strength leaves everything to be desired it should be quite funny. Tomorrow, I'll be embarrassing myself on the ice rink at the Galleria. Feel free to stop by either venue for some humorous photo opportunities and a chance to use your first aid skills.

Keith

Back to form

Ifs you knows me, you knows that I loves me the junk miles.

3 miles yesterday morning.
3 miles this morning.

Mmmm mmmm good.

Its easier these days to get out the door since there's no marathon looming. As much as I love marathon training, I love unfocused running just as much, and I alternate between craving one and craving the other. So now I get to run aimlessly for 6 months or so and she's just what the doctor ordered.

---

On another note, it has been mentioned in comments that both JD and Christy, are up for the Lucky Trails Challenge. I'm a little bit jealous of them, and a little bit relieved that I have a good excuse not to run it too. I'll see you both at the finish line!

Anyway, back to the front.
Keith.

Seabrook Marathizzon - March 17 & 18

Hi Bloggers,

As you may know, the Clear Lake Fitness Club puts on a marathon every year called the Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon. We've always had a marathon and a halfamarathon a 4-person relay on the Sunday before St. Patrick's Day, and this year there's an additional half marathon on Saturday. There's an article about us and how we rock! in Runner Triathlete News this month, and about how we're giving a bunch of money to the bridge over troubled waters. It's a little less than four weeks away, and this is basically the last long race in the area until October.

So with two days of races, there's even the possibility that you can run both Saturday and Sunday, and then you get a third medal. I'm part of the committee to organize it and the third medal is cool enough that I wish I could do it. Instead I'll be running the first leg of the relay and then working at the finish line, expediting the process, making things go smoothly, awarding medals, karate chopping the bandits right in their necks, "Hayahhh!"

(Just between you and me, we're a little more than 60% full for both days, despite having doubled the number of runners, and there's more than 30 crazy people signed up for both days.)

So come on down and run with us if you want to. There'll be hamburgers and hotdogs and chicken and rice and beans at the end, and I think we've got the nicest race packet I've seen, except for Sunmart. We're giving all the runners, including everybody on the relay teams, a technical shirt, a running hat, and running socks, and some other bridgolatta. All you need to bring are your shorties and you'll be good to go.

I renovated the marathon's website this year, I hope you like it. And there's a form to volunteer that looks just like a regular old form, but I worked real hard on it.

Anyway...
Talk to you later...
Love, Keith.

My Cholesterol Test Results

Last Friday, The University of Houston gave all faculty and staff and students free cholesterol screenings, I guess as a Valentine's Day gift. I've never had it checked before and I was kind of worried, since I'm pretty active, but my diet could be improved a small amount. Not to mention, I wasn't thrilled about decreasing my blood volume even a small amount just one day before a marathizzon. But I did it anyway, and the results are in. It's official, I'm STRONG LIKE BULL!

That's even what the nurse said, she yelled it, "STRONG LIKE BULL!" But the doctor was even worried a little. He said I should increase my pizza intake and he described in detail how they even have some with more cheese built right into the crust. And then he wrote me a prescription for some curly fries and he said to take them twice daily with food. And he said to watch out for stuff that's "baked - not fried," but he said I could have that stuff once in a while, as long as I bread it and fry it also.

TMC Recap - Boy -> Man -> Superman

I'm sitting on my sofa, watching the New Yankee Workshop, enjoying my pre-breakfast ice cream sundae, and refectizzing back on my TMC. It has been a long season, full of ups and downs. I fondly remember that naive young boy that started this journey. Such energy in his young eyes.

Things started fast with a 4:17, which stands as my PR today, when I ran with crazy old Dean Karnazes in his 50 marathon / 50 day / 50 state adventure. I surprised myself and had a little extra left at the end for an adrenaline fueled last 2 miles.

My San Antonio race wasn't quite so enjoyable, aside from being with some good friends, I had difficulties early and difficulties late, and I finished completely drained, overjoyed at the idea of being able to stop running.

My Sunmart 50K was even more difficult, when the modest hills and trails of Huntsville State Park were more than I could handle (with composure at least). I finished my first ultramarathon that day, but the wide-eyed little boy that started this train was gone.

The beginning of 2007 brought me my Houston Marathon debut. I ran a decent race but died at the end again.

And last came Surfside, and as raceday came, I felt unprepared again, as I always feel right beforehand. It was windy, and I put my head down and trudged up my 13 miles into the wind. I struggled through the tough miles, just long enough to get to the tipping point, where you are close enough to the finish that you don't need any glycogen anyway. Close enough for the adrenaline to kick in. For me this is about mile 23½.

And so you see the journey from boy to man, and ultimately to the Übermensch you see today. Weakness is no longer required in the house of Keith.

So that's the end. I'm now enjoying my post-breakfast ice cream sundae, contemplating what's next. For a while I was debating only how fat I should get, and what type of eating contests should I enter. But with a very long and steady run yesterday, I realize that I'm in decent shape. It won't be long before I have a new goal and a new plan. I've been home all day, and I'm even feeling a little couped up already.

Later, Keith.

Surfside Marathon - 4:47 or 4:48 or something

Hi America, how are you? You look good.

There was a big question mark going into this race as to when I would finish. I was looking back at my training log in the days before and it seemed the farthest I'd run since the Houston Marathon was 6.75 miles. Changos! I caught a cold a couple weeks ago and it severly interrupted the training I had planned for between marathons.

If you don't feel like reading and just want to know if your faster or slower than me, I'll tell you. I finished in 4:47 or 4:48, I think. Houston and San Antonio were under 4:30, and I thought maybe I could run something comparable today, but the sand and the wind slowed me down. In truth, I feel like this was a better race for me than either of those two. I was tired, but aside from a few walks through some of the water stations to drink and to gel-up, I ran the whole way to the finish. Both Houston and San Antonio (and of course Sunmart), the wheels came off near the end, and I had many unplanned stoppages, just because it was hurting too much.

Anyway, I want to back up and tell you about my carbo-loading day too, because it was very nice. We went to Maggiano's Little Italy, since I had a Chili's giftcard, and Maggiano's honors them too. I had the biggest cube of lasagne ever created. Plus there was a bowl of broccoli asiago soup which was excellent, and a creme brulee too. It seems I've finally learned the capacity of my stomach (it's 6" x 6" x 6" + 250mL + a creme brulee).

There were a lot of familiar faces at this race, including Susan, Rick, Liane, Hugh, Vicky, Kevin, Tamsin, and Omar from the CLFC. Not to mention Barbara, Edwin, June, and Jamoosh from the HRB. There was even a professor from my school there running the half. Incidently, did you know that Susan from CLFC is totally amazing? She ran the RR100 miler last weekend to finish her Texas Trilogy and ran the marathon today as a recovery run. You should check out her race report from last weeks 100 miler, she PR'd, despite being almost completely blind by the end of the race, due to an electrolyte imbalance.

Where was I? Ah yes.
It was a little cold and a little windy, but I think not as windy as last year, and the sand wasn't blowing like it was last year either. I was prepared for the worst and brought 5 gels with me in case I was having a rough day. I felt better than expected and postponed the first gel until after 16 miles, after the turnaround to head back to Stalman Park. The turnaround to run with the wind for the last 10 miles made a huge difference, and I'm sure my pace in that part was faster than fighting the wind. I don't know my splits since I forgot my watch again. And this time, it left me totally in the dark, since nobody was calling out the times, except for one guy at the south turnaround, and that didn't really help because I didn't know the distance. But it's funny, since three of the five marathons I've run for the TMC, I've forgotten my watch. By the time I was ready to finish this morning, I thought the time could be anywhere between 4:30 and 5:00.

But as I mentioned, I'm pretty happy with my time, and even though it's my second slowest marathon, I feel like it was my second best marathon effort, behind my run with Dean in October.

Right now, I'm ready for some downtime, and I'll probably take a week off from runnizzing, and probably 5 or 6 months off from racing. But I'm already looking forward to getting back to training. December, or January, I'll see if I can't break four hours.

Anyway, thanks for reading.
Love, Keith.

Recovering from a cold

Here is how my recovery is progressing...

Tuesday - 30 minutes swimming.

Thursday - 30 minutes runnizzing on the bridge. I felt terrible and stopped after only one loop. I've been symptom free for several days, but it doesn't mean that I have enough energy to go past mile 1.

Saturday - 60 minutes runnizzlizzing. Better. I slept in and missed the group run, but I got an extra 5 hours sleep, which I think I needed. I finally made it out to the Seabrook trails around 1PM. It only occurs to me now that I was saying "good morning" to everybody and it wasn't even close to morning anymore.

I still feel strange from that time I worked out, which is like 12 days ago already. Not sore, just very tight.

Well, it's too bad the Colts win by more than 7. I guess I'm out one dollar.

Keith.

me - healthy < ε

Okay, the corner I turned last week as I got healthy got unturned and I got real sick again, but then got returned and I'm approaching healthy once again. I'd say I'd be arbitrarily close to healthy tomorrow, and I'll start running again.

I took the whole weekend off from running and from all strenuous activities and it seems I missed the last chance for a quality long run before the Surfside Marathizzon. I know it's my fifth marathon in five months, but I still feel guilty when I don't reach the goals of my training plan.

I finally got my certificate from Dean's Race in the mail last week. It looks pretty official, I don't think Roger Soler will have a problem attributing it to my TMC. And I also got my TMC singlet from Roger Soler and it's very nice. Weather permitting, I'll wear it next weekend in Surfside as I run straight into the history books.

And I've been thinking about the goals for next year, I have tons of ideas and many of them drift away never to return, so before I make them public, I usually wait until one of them digs a hole and solidifies itself in somewhere in my melonpulp. So the plan is to follow one of the 'advanced' marathon plans, maybe Pfitzinger, and focus on a winter marathon, and shoot for the 3:50 - 4:00 range. My PR is 4:17, so it seems like a good goal. Let me know if you think it's too easy or too hard for me.

I think I'll plan to run Marathons of Texas, and hopefully one of those three days, the weather will be good and the nine golden keffeshlumps will be vibrating at the perfect frequency, and I'll have a good race.

I am already a little excited about training for it, but I always start too early. Any more than 6 months of focused training is just too much to ask. I'll try to enjoy some down time and stay around 30 mpw for a while. And no more racing for a while. I like running aimlessly.

Anyway, take care.
Love, Keith.

Turned the corner

Well, I think I'm finally starting to get better. I worked out way too much and got a cold at the same time, which left me almost incapacitated for all of yesterday.

The worst part was when I was hobbling home from work early, walking through the cold rain, hunched over from sore / tight muscles and shivering. My abs were painfully sore and I couldn't stop shivering, it was so unpleasant.

Now, my cold isn't really better, just different, less headachey, more sore throaty. And my muscles still hurt real bad, but at least I can use them, and getting off the sofa takes less than 10 minutes. My friend Heather thought my condition was quite funny yesterday, and I have to agree, it was funny in a pathetic wet towel kind of way.

But I feel compelled to warn you about something. If you ever find yourself home in the middle of the day, there's a television show that is so horribly evil, just thinking of it now is bringing back all the pain of watching it. It's called Games Fever and it is the worst thing ever created, and I couldn't stop watching it. The whole show was a game where people were calling in to read the evil hostess' mind. She wrote down a word and you were supposed to guess it, and the clue was that it is part of the phrase "Back _". So you call in and guess things like "back door" and "back hair" and that was the whole show - for 30 minutes. And at least 3 people said "backstage" and each time she said it was a very very good guess. And they take a caller only once every 3-4 minutes and the rest of the time the hostess is explaining the clue over and over and over. It's so painful. And then at the very end (as I mentioned, I couldn't stop watching it), she gave a clue so they would surely get it, so she said, "in a theater, this is the term for the seats lined up in the very back." And they took one more caller and the caller said "backstage" and she said it was a very very good guess. (Just so you can sleep tonight I'll tell you, it was "back row")

Anyway, gotta go.
Keith.

First time weight training...

oh no. I am sore. I can barely lift my arms.

I worked out this morning for the first time in several years.

I had been meaning to add some weight training but was having difficulty actually getting around to it. I did the bench press and the pulldowns and all the different varieties of pushing and pulling. And some core exercises.

Right now, I feel terrible. Not just because of the fatigue and soreness, but I think I'm coming down with a cold. It's not that bad yet, but everything feels a little too bright and a little too loud and I'm kind of achey all over. I'm sick of the cold rain.

Okay, there are more minor annoyances to complain about, but I needsy my sleepy right now.

Love, Keith.

Yo-Yo Rocks

Since I posted on Wednesday, I think I've done some running. I must have.

I know I ran on Saturday, 6.75 miles with the club. It seemed like everybody had some extra energy that day and were trying to drop me.

Did I run another day too? I think so, maybe Friday? I remember running by those crazy Jack Russel terriers one day, so I think it was probably 4.4 miles on Friday morning. Ah yes, now I remember, I was going to run Thursday night, but instead, we got tickets to see Yo-Yo play with the Houston Symphony, so I ran Friday morning - my 4.4 mile route that goes by the Jack Russel house. Incidentally, Yo-Yo Rocks!

And then I ran this morning and I felt really strong. I think I was going fast, but I didn't have my watch, so who knows. I haven't worn my watch in a long time, now that I want to use it I can't find it.

What else, what else...

Oh, my club had a party on Saturday night, and everybody was going to be there, even my long lost friend Tonia, and there was going to be a slideshow and catered food and everything, but I didn't make it there because I'm stupid. I copied the map and left off the label for one street - which totally messed everything up because there were like one hundred other possible streets, so I drove around like a drunken fool in the rain for at least 90 minutes.

FYI: Emails from the Surfside Marathon say they're more than 72% full, when last week they were 62% full, so if you're thinking about registering, you should probably do it this week. Plus, I've been telling people to register before it fills up for a couple days already. I already told my entire club and my friend Yong.

Keith.

Back to running...

What I'd really like to do for the new look, since I've learned php and have been experimenting with the club's blog, I'd like to extend WordPress to add Running Log functionality to it, so you could easily post your training plan and log mileage and times and it will draw some graphs and stuff. I'll never have enough time to do that though.

---

I ran 3 easy miles yesterday and felt pretty good. Much better than after the other marathons. I'm getting excited about the Surfside Marathon. Somehow, I've become reenergized, without a long break as I thought I'd need.

Keith.

My new look.

As you may have noticed, keithrselassie.blogspot.com has undergone a bit of a redesign, or more like an undesign.

What happened was, I was chatting with the dudes from Earthlink over the internet about how they wanted to charge me $21.95 for dialup service. And since that's way too much for dialup, and since new subscribers get it for $9.95 for three months with no commitment, I thought maybe I could get the newbie deal since I've been with them for several years. But no, newbies get a good deal, I get a thumb in the eye. So I cancelled it and I didn't even think about it, but all my webspace with all my images for the backgrounds and everything else went up in smoke.

I still have everything on my computer, but I figured it's time for a change anyway. I'll slowly start adding all new bells and whistles as necessary. MonkeyBuddha probably won't be back, but I'm sure there will be other Monkey-related add-ins.

Stay tuned.
Keith.

Houston Marathon - 4:27:50

The Houston Marathon was very nice. I was looking forward to this race for a long time. It burned me up last year and the year before at this time, when all those people were running like crizzazy and I wasn't fit enough for the full.

I had very little trouble until mile 20 or so, then it was difficult, as it should be. I felt better than expected, and I was worried because I haven't run as much as I would have liked since Sunmart.

It was very nice to run here, with so many people that I know. It was like "this is your running life" for me as I saw almost everybody I've ever run with. You guys rock, you know. And this city rocks too. I like so many things about Houston, it's become my home, and I was happy to run through the whole town in one day - the Heights, Rice Village, West University, the Galleria, Tanglewood, Memorial, Downtown, very nice.

I feel pretty good right now, better than usual for two days after the marathon.

I signed up for Surfside this morning, so it's decided, this is the last one for the TMC!!! I'm ready to be finished. I'm looking forward to a long period of aimless running with no goals or races or anything - just running for the sake of running - maybe another 6 month streak :).

There's a lot of ideas for next year's racing. I saw the Marathons of Texas jacket at the Expo, and it's really nice. It's very appealing to run those three. It seems like my base should be solid by now, so maybe I can think about some speedwork for next year. The question is, "do I go farther? or do I go faster?" (by faster I mean a faster marathon - not like a 5K, those still seem like cruel and unusual punishment for me)

more to come... (really, I promise)
Keith.

Chevron Houston Marathon Athlete Alert

Keith Kelleher, 04:27:50 (NET) @ finish, Pace 10:12
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Chevron Houston Marathon Athlete Alert

Keith Kelleher, 03:06:10 (NET) @ 30k, Pace 9:59, Predicted 04:21:44.
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Chevron Houston Marathon Athlete Alert

Keith Kelleher, 02:09:46 (NET) @ Half, Pace 9:53, Predicted 04:19:07.
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Chevron Houston Marathon Athlete Alert

Keith Kelleher, 01:03:10 (NET) @ 10k, Pace 10:09, Predicted 04:26:06.
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I'm getting nervous...

It's a very exciting time to be a runner in Houston. Pasta Parties, Packet Pickup's, EXPO's, trying to relax, trying to distract myself. I'm happy to be in marathon shape (or at least close enough). I remember past years, when I wasn't and I'd be all jealous of the people who could run the whole way.

I have so many things to do this Saturday. I need an oil change and I have to go to the store and buy a power drill and a coffee maker, and I have to clean my house a little, and fix my couch with my new power drill, and I think I might just blow it all off and do that stuff on Monday. I should just be lazy and laze around the house and watch movies and do lazy guy stuff. I had to put together another piece of Ikea furniture for one of my old lady friends again last weekend, and it takes a couple hours and tires me out. If she comes by again, I think I won't even answer it. And I even told her last weekend, I said, "I don't have a lot of time today," but then she just gave me some list of restrictions to her own schedule, none of which actually gave me more time, and I eventually gave up and said "okay, I'll do it." And then she said she'd give me 55$ to put together the bed and to move her gigantic hide-a-bed couch, and by the end, I guess she forgot how much she said because it turned into 30$, and she even said 25$ at one point in the conversation. But she only had 20's so she'll give me 10 more at a later time maybe. Anyway, I've been amusing myself endlessly, everytime I see her, by mumbling under my breath, "bitch owes me money."

Okay, sorry about that. You shouldn't have gotten me started talking about the old ladies. What was I talking about? I don't even remember.

I've been running.
8 miles with the club, as we taper.
7.3 miles while I did my laundry on Monday morning.
6 miles last night at Mizzorial Pizzark.

I'll probably run 3 easy miles tomorrow morning, pickup my packet at lunchtime, carbo-load with the bloggers at the pisketti warehouse, and on Saturday, I'll be lazy and watch movies and eat bananas. Sunday, I'll shock the world.

That's all for now. I'll probably be better about blogging from now on, probably.
Love, Keith.

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Resolutions

Resolution #1: I will post some kind of 2006 wrap up and 2007 plans some time before the end of February.

Resolution #2: Think of some song to quote for this post.

Gosh I'm the worst blogger evar.

Listening to: Artist - Song (clip)

Sunny Florida

I'm back in sunny Florida visiting my Mom and the rest of the fam. I flew in early this morning and had lunch with my Mom at a new place here in town called bd's, which seems very trendy. They have a type of salad bar, where you get a bunch of veggies and a bunch of raw meat and some kind of sauce and you give it to the dudes and they throw it on the big hot thing and cook it up right in front of you. I've been to a similar place down at the end of Todville Road in Seabrook. Then I spent the afternoon at my gramma's house helping her bake her cookies and eating lots of the cookies she baked already. (I remember one year she made the cookies too early and had to remake them all by Christmas because we ate them all.)

I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of time for running today so I ran 10.1 miles last night before I left. It was the farthest I've run by myself in a long long time. I've become so dependent on the group for the long runs, and I had some difficulty around 7 miles. I thought, "i'm out of shape... i should quit... there's no point struggling through it because pretending to be in shape doesn't mean I'm actually in shape..." I can be very persuasive, but I planned ahead for those mental bugs and picked a route that has no shortcuts. (Sometimes I think my strength as a runner is planning things so I don't need to be strong - does that count?)

Anyway, I'm glad to have my trusty laptop and broadband access. Tomorrow's a big day. So much time and so little to do... wait... strike that... reverse it.

Listening to: Tomatito y Michel Camilo - Blue Bossa

Keith.

The Truth about Santa ! ! !

Caution : This isn't for little kids. It isn't for grown-ups either. It's that disturbing!

I was contemplating the old question about the logistics of one man making so many deliveries in just one night. The standard solution about using the time-zones just doesn't seem sufficient to deliver all those packages to all those little boys and girls in one night. And I got to thinking, maybe Santa outsources some of it. So I was a-researchin' in the old Wikipedia, and Wiki says that indeed, some countries like Belgium and the Netherlands get their packages from somebody named Sinterklaas, and other countries get their packages from somebody else. For example :

Afghanistan : Baba Chaghaloo

Brazil : Papai Noel

Hungary : Mikulás

Ireland : Daidí na Nollaig

Mexico : El Niñito Dios

Romania : Moş Crăciun

South Africa : Vader Kersfees

United Kingdom : Father Christmas

Now, I know some of those are probably just different names for the same dude, but they can't all be him, so I thought I figured it out that there is indeed some outsourcing going on. And I thought it was really cool that both Romania and South Africa get their presents from Star Wars characters. But I read this again and I thought, "Hold the Phone! El Niñito Dios! Mexico gets presents from El Niñito Dios?" And it turns out that it's true! Mexico, Colombia, the Czech Republic, they get presents directly from the baby Jesus!

And that's where things fell apart for me. Is it possible that Santa outsources extra packages to the Baby Jesus? No way! Santa is the outsource.

Anyway, you see what's happened. Baby Jesus neglects us and Christmas becomes more about the delivery guy than the birthday Boy. We can laugh at the naïve Melanesian cargo cults who worship the airplanes that dropped supplies during WWII, but are we any different? We're the most rediculous of them all. Why don't we forget Santa and put up figurines of the UPS man?

But it begs the larger question. Why don't we get personal deliveries like the Czechs? I thought we were His favorite.

---

Ran 4 miles this evening. Felt good.

Listening to: Björk - Aeroplane (One word, one word, on the phone makes me happy.)

Keith out.

Updizzin the Runnizzin

I was feeling recovered on Wednesday so I headed out for an easy 3 miler. Shortly after starting I learned that I wasn't really recovered afterall. Nothing hurt, but I definitely didn't have any energy.

By Saturday, I felt much better. I ran part of the club's 21 miler, about 9 miles total, and all was well.

Today, I was extra lazy.

Listening to: Pepe Habichuela - Habichuela En Rama

Keith.

Sunmart 50K

Sunmart 50K! Whoo hoo! I finished it in about 6 hours and 46 minutes. It was a lot slower than I expected, but I totally underestimated how much harder it would be off the roads. And from what I've heard it's not really that difficult as far as trail running goes.

On Friday night at the pasta party, I was hanging out, looking for somebody I know and couldn't find anybody, so I sat down with two guys and chatted about running and stuff. They told me where to run in California and in Michigan, and I told them where to run in Houston. I could tell that they were much more experienced than me and it seemed that they were probably pretty good athletes. Turns out, Jasper from California came in 12th in the 50 miler, and Jim from Michigan won the 50K! They didn't tell me they were that good. And I was talking to them and totally feeling like crap because these guys were really fit, and meanwhile I'm one of those guys you can't even tell is a runner without seeing him run.

Anyway, the race was difficult. Even as early as the 8 mile mark, it was difficult. Most of the aid stations are usually 2 to 3 miles apart, but for some reason it felt like forever. I was trying to calculate when I'd reach the next one, but since I was going a lot slower than usual, I couldn't do it. But those aid-stations are awesome - everything you can find at a Sunmart, you can find at the aid-station - my favorites were the fig newtons and the oreos and the gum drops and the little peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the pretzels and the granola bars.

Towards the end I was happy anytime I managed to string together more than 5 minutes of running at a time. :) It was hard, and with the terrain, it was a danger anytime to step on uneven ground, since my legs and ankles were fatigued to the point that it was hard to stay in control. And a couple times I kicked the invisible tree root and went flying, never falling all the way, but flailing wildly, doing crazy crazy things to stay upright.

I appreciated the encouragement on the course. SLTM race director Robby Sabban assured me that I probably wasn't going to die. I think Bill said something similar - I hung out and talked to Bill for a minute or so because he's cool, but also because he's trained in emergency medicine. And it was good to share complaints with Holden out on the course. If I were him, I'd have mailed the chip back. :) There were also some peeps running the 50 miler encourageing me at the end, when they still had another loop to do. One guy said, "alright buddy, it's barbecue time!"

It was definitely the hardest race I've done. It only took 24 hours for me to want to do it again. Especially since I think I'm going to give the afghan to somebody for Christmas so I'll have to run it again if I want one for myself.

Here are some things I learned in my first ultramarathon:

The trails are difficult, much harder than I expected. Especially for a delicate city-boy like me.

Huntsville State Park is beautiful. I wish I could have meandered around more and enjoyed them, but if you don't focus on the roots, you're going to hit the ground.

I really am recovering faster than after a marathon, but during the race it was harder.

You can put a chicken breast and a hamburger on the same bun. (Not that it's much better than the sum of the parts, but it is a nice protein delivery vehicle.)

Listening to: Cat Stevens - Miles from Nowhere (Look up at that mountain, I have to climb.)

Keith out.

I know ! ! !

I'm like the worst blogger in the history of really bad bloggers!

I'm still running, but mostly just the important runs, without most of the junk miles in between that I love so much. In truth, I've been struggling a little - too much racing I think. I miss the days of the racing moratorium and the running streak, and the loads and loads of useless miles that made me fitter than ever.

Since the last post, I ran 3 good loops on Señor Bridgio last Thursday and a good 14 miler last Saturday. I'm going to Memorial Park tonight for 4-5 miles.

What else... Ah yes, I was running down on the Seabrook Trails on Sunday night, and I was running by that part by the gazebo and I was thinking about the little lake that is back off the trails. You know, the trails are nice, but sometimes they creep me out. Like those wierd cows that I see sometimes across Pine Gully - they just stare at me the whole time, and they're really skinny, you can see their whole skeleton - it's wierd. And the wild pigs occasionally freak me out too. One time, I was running by and there was a big black pig on the ridge looking at me, and all he did was snort a little and run away, but the size of him and how quickly he can move makes me uneasy. Anyways, I was running by the gazebo, by the turnoff to that creepy lake - oh yeah, there's a wierd creepy lake off the trails to the west, and I went there one time, and there's a small lake that was perfectly still, and the water was bright green, and there was a bunch of lilly pads. It was kind of beautiful, but still kind of creepy, and then there's like a little rusty old shack that's there too that creeps me out even more. Anyway, I was telling my friend about the creepy lake, and how it seems haunted and how there's a creepy old shack there and it's probably haunted too, and to be honest, I was trying to freak her out a little, but I ended up totally freaking myself out. I mentioned how it is perfectly still and how there are no animals anywhere around it. And on Sunday, I ran really late and it was dark by the time I was returning back and running by that stretch, and I couldn't see very much, and I was thinking about that haunted lake and the haunted shack, and I heard some noise from on the ridge, but it was dark and couldn't see into the trees at all, and then as loud and obvious as anything can be, I heard one of those pigs squeal at me, and I took off and ran like crazy.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, the Sunmart 50K is this Saturday, and I'm a little worried. The fourteen miler last week was easy, but I'm still worried. That was the longest run since the San Antonio Marathon, and it seems the mental barriers have been rebuilt a little.

Maybe I shouldn't worry. Maybe it will be easy. Perhaps I'll run my first ultramarathon without effort and be relaxed and refreshed at the end, and ready for another loop. Hmmm... Perhaps.

Listening to: The Killers - Bones (But the message relayed is the same; Wait till tomorrow, you'll be fine.)

Keith out.

Why is there a hole in my brain?

I volunteered for an MRI study at Baylor College of Medicine, where they give you a couple bucks and a copy of the structural data for your brain. It was an interesting experience, I've never had an MRI before.

They said they didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but even I can see that there's a big hole in my brain! What's up with that?!?!

Okay, I do study neurobiology myself, so I know there's supposed to be some fluid filled ventricles that run through the brain, so I guess it's normal to see. So, maybe there's supposed to be a hole there, but then what's up with the 'lack of hole' on the other side? There's either too much hole on one side, or not enough hole on the other side. Something ain't wright. And is it me or does it look like the right side is trying to take over some territory from the left side? And is my skull supposed to be so lumpy? The side view shows there's a big lump on the top of my head too.

And I think I can feel that there's something a little more 'holey' on the left side. Or maybe it feels a little less 'holey' on the right side. And sometimes I don't remember people's names and sometimes I can't remember some of the details about the things I learned in colege. Occasionelly I seem to have some trouble with abstraktergedanke. And one time I was watching something on televisiona nd during the comercial I started changing channels and I totlaly forgot what I was watching and I coundn't find it again. Now that I'm thinking of it, it was Smallville. Maybe I'm okay.

Listening to: Cat Stevens - Miles From Nowhere ('cause I'll drink to you, my baby)

Keith.

Jell-O Turkey - Jell-O Turkey - Jell-O Turkey

People seemed to like the Jello Turkey last year, so here you go. Enjoy.



I may post something soon. Times are rough with my running. I've got a bit of a pain in my quadricep ever since San Antonio. It's not too bad, but I've cut back on my running. I'm not sure I'll be able to get another 20+ miler in. I ran Saturday, an easy 6 miles, and it was okay. The best thing was that my buddy Robby Sabban, race director extraordinaire for the Seabrook Marathon, heard me complaining about not finding a hat to replace my NYCM hat, so he tracked one down for me that says "San Antonio Road Runners." Thanks Robby!

Incidentally, the Seabrook Marathon has added another half marathon on Saturday so you can have that option too. You can even run the half on Saturday and either another half or the full on Sunday and get a third medal, kind of like the Goofy Race at Disney. There's lots of cool stuff in the goodie bag, like a running hat, and trail running socks, and of course there's a shirt (a tech shirt) - all you need to bring is your shoes and a pair of shorts or something.

I suckered a couple of the people I work with into running the relay with me, and they've been training too. I still have to rope one more carcass into running or else I may have to run 2 legs.

Listening to: Beck - Nausea (I eat alone in the desert; With skulls for my pets)

Keith.

San Antonio Marathon - 4:29:06

Here we are at the start, from left to right, there's me, Holden, Phyllis, Tonia, and Rex, chilling out before the start, talking trash, guaranteeing crazy crazy things.

I did many things wrong the morning before the race, including not giving myself enough time to get to the start, not bringing enough money for parking ($10!), not having any suitable food before the race, not having any gels or anything to bring, and forgetting my watch. I got there only 20 minutes or so before the start, but it was enough time to find my buddy Holden, and my other buddies Phyllis, Rex, Tonia and Bart, and chit chat a bit.

I liked the San Antonio course. The first part is around about the downtown area that squiggles around for about 4 miles before heading South. Some people don't like it when there's a lot of turns, but I do, it keeps things interesting. The majority of the course is South of downtown and passes by the missions. The scenery is nice and a lot of it is much like the bayous of Houston.

I ran the splits of a veteran marathoner, with almost even pace for the two halves (2:14:25 for the 1st half and 2:14:42 for the 2nd half), and since I was telling people I wanted to run around 4:30, it seems as though I'm pretty freaking awesome. If you'd like to believe that then skip down to where it says "Overall, it was a great time".

The truth is, I wanted to run a 4:20, and I had two major problems slowing me down, one in each half of the race. In the first half, I had some issues with my stomach and had a lot of trouble finding my rhythm for the first 11 miles. Perhaps it was the Powerade and the candybar that I grabbed at a convenience store. I eventually got over it and felt better, and the splits from the race do show that I had a section in the middle where I was running about 30 seconds per mile faster than the beginning or the end.

In the second half, about mile 22 or 23, I ran out of gas and crashed. I'd muster up some gumption to run again, and about a quarter to a half mile later, I'd walk. When my heart rate slowed down again, I'd do it all over again. The problem, I think, was just plain-old lack of fitness. I hadn't run anything longer than the Houston Half Marathon since the last marathon, and I think I should have. Perhaps my problems could have been masked a little better if I had brought my own gels, but I was relying on those from the water stations, and they were not always available when I needed them.

Overall, it was a great time. I'd like to do this race again. And for the next race, I know what I can do better: prepare food and money for the morning before, bring my own gels and maybe water, and run some more long runs.

The Sunmart 50K is only 3 and a half weeks away already. It seems very short. I'd like to do another long run before then, maybe 20-22 miles, and it would have to be next week.

Above is the gang from the CLFC, chilling out by the finish line with their aches and their pains and their medals.

Listening to: The Killers - When You Were Young (Can we climb this mountain? I don't know; Higher now than ever before, I know we can make it if we take it slow.)

Rock on please.
Keith.

San Antonio Expo

It's impossible to not get excited in this environment. Race numbers, chips, tee-shirts, the smell of determination fills the air.

At the expo, I found some free copies of Inside Texas Running, and I picked one up, happy to see it was the issue with my race report from my little run with Dean. I wandered around a little and, low and behold, I stumbled on some free copies of Inside Texas Running, and I picked one up, or accidentally two. Later on, I grabbed another. I chatted a little with Roger Soler and told him I registered for the TMC, and mentioned my concerns about Dean's run qualifying for the TMC. The conversation was a little confusing, so I don't know if it's going to count or not. Dean told me they would send a finisher's certificate, but I'm not sure if it will certify what I need it to certify. I'm starting to believe that, by the end of the season, I'm going to have to run 6.

I was trying to find a hat that says San Antonio Marathon, but never found one. My hat from the NYCM isn't even blue anymore, it's in pretty bad shape.

The tee-shirt for the marathoners is beautiful, my favorite race shirt ever. It's dark green with a tan and brown depiction of the missions on the front and it says:

SAN ANTONIO MARATHON 2006
marathon of the americas

And on the back, nothing. No collage of tiny logos, it's very nice. Usually, I wind up wearing a race shirt when it's the last clean thing in my closet, but this one I like.

So far, San Antonio Rocks! I'll have to come back just to waste time and check out the restaurants and stuff. Downtown is very cool, and there's music audible at every block. Every so often, the crowds reveal a person, maybe a man or a woman, young or old, but they all share the same look of purpose, and, of course, the same little grey bag, with the same complement of coupons and raceday goodies.

Well, I've got about an hour and a half until spaghetti-o'clock with a small group from the CLFC.

Listening to: some guy in some bar - You May Be Right (I've been stranded in the combat zone, I walked through Bedford-Sty alone.)

Keith.

Dean v. Lance

This morning was the last group run, a little 8 miler, as we taper. It was the first time back with the group since my last marathon, and it occurred to me, some people that promised me hugs, didn't pay up (Brenda, Vicki, am I forgetting somebody?).

Anyway, next Sunday, I'll run marathon #2 out of 5 for the Texas Marathon Challenge in San Antonio!!!

Set your VCRs. Tomorrow (Sunday), NBC, 12:30-1:30 PM, NYCM highlight show. Lance Armstrong is trying to break 3 hours supposedly, although, if he's like me, maybe he has an easy public goal and a challenging private goal. Incidentally, my goal for San Antonio is to finish in ten and a half hours. My old buddy Dean Karnazes, finishing up his 50 marathons in 50 days. I would like to see how fast he can run it after all this. Can he beat Lance? (I think he can)

I wish I was there. I was there last year, injured. Perhaps someday, I'll make a triumphant return to NY, and I'll win it.

Listening to: Nirvana - Stay Away (?)

btw, Pay up!
Keith.

Above average run at the Houston Half.

When I woke up on Sunday morning, I had no clear goal for the race. I thought about running it easy. I even thought about running it in my Forrest Gump costume. My PR was 2 hours, 0 minutes, and 16.9 seconds from two years ago, and I did think that I could probably break it without too much difficulty.

So I thought I'd try to break 2 hours, and so it probably wouldn't be comfortable to run in costume. But then I thought, as long as I'm not going to run in costume, why don't I just Rock and Roll like nobody ever has before? Why don't I lace up my golden shoes with my golden laces and blow everybody's minds? Why don't I shock the world and run like a great and magestic golden firebird? Why not? Why don't I put on my shoes and fly? I'm fit like never before. And so, I was determined... This day, my feets would inspire the world. Who knows, I might even break the 50th percentile in my age group!

The first part of the race, I was trying to run on pace for 2 hours even. I had my GPS with me, so I knew the first few miles were right on pace. Before too long, I was seeing splits around 8:40, and I'm pretty bad at judging my pace, but I can usually tell if the level of effort is something I can stand for a given amount of time. It didn't seem too difficult, so I decided to stick with that level of effort. I didn't consciously pick up speed, but some of the later miles, around 8-9, I saw a couple splits around 8:00 and one at 7:44, and I thought there might be something wrong with my watch - but the distances were consistent with the mile markers.

It was around this time that I was finishing up my second loop, and I had a prime viewing location to see Sean Wade cross the finish line in front. I'm happy to say that I didn't get lapped - I was about 2 seconds away from it, but it didn't happen. I saw him again around mile 11 marker as he was warming down, and congratulated him, he told me "Keep it up. Two to go." He was accurate, there was about 2 miles to go, and the time was 1:34 - 16 minutes away from a 1:50 half marathon. That was something I hadn't really considered as a possibility before the race. I thought I might be able to handle a 1:55 if I had a good day. I reallocated a small amount of sugar to my brain to crunch the numbers, and I saw that if I had a couple more 7:40's I could break 1:50. So I beared down, did my EQ impression, and I ran the last two in 7:41 and 7:35. I crossed the finish line at 1:49:35.7 with a 10+ minute PR, and I was probably the most surprised person in the city.

It's a very good race, and doing multiple loops isn't bad like I thought it would be. It's kind of nice to get to see everybody multiple times. And I like the fact that it's the inaugural half marathon, I always wanted to get in on the ground floor of a race and run it every year.

It was a good day. And did you see my friends Linda and Brenda from the CLFC? They were the two fabulous babes in bikini's cheering everybody on, I looked forward to seeing them every lap.

It was good to see everybody again. It seems like it's been a long time. Jen, Holden, Jessica, June, Jon, Edwin, Vic, Steve, Joe, Bill - you guys ROCK! And I saw Lisa out there briefly, but I was running and didn't realize it was her until too late, and Erin cheering me on each lap as well - thanks E. Where was Barbara? and JD & J? I guess I missed them, I assume they still ROCK!, but I can't be sure since I didn't see them directly.

Listening to: Sponge - Molly (Sixteen candles down the drain.)

Good night.
Keith.

Discounts and Medals...

Okay, I'm in. I signed up for the Houston Half yesterday evening. I have to say the thing that affected my decision the most was the discount I was promised by Vic, and the medal I was promised by Barbara.

It should be good. Since I ran out of gas on Thursday morning, I've been gradually feeling better, and I'm starting to feel the itch to run again. I'm not clear on what my goal is. I think I might be in shape for a PR, but the real goal is San Antonio in just two weeks. But then again, two weeks should be long enough for me to recover, should I decide to run it strongly.

I'm also considering running in costume.

Listening to: Ben Folds Five - Philosophy (And you were laughing at my helmet hat; Laughing at my torch; Go ahead and laugh all you want; I got my philosophy)

Keith out.

Wanna see me do the bee dance?

Okay, since I can't run anymore, I can blog about something else that I think is really cool, and once in a while somebody says they like to read about the science on my blog.

I attended another interesting seminar yesterday, this time it was about honeybees, and the way they communicate and the way the make decisions. I don't know how much you know about this, but honeybees can communicate the location of a food source to other bees by doing a little dance. They wiggle around and walk in one direction, and the length of their dance is proportional to the distance of the food source, and the angle they move in is equal to the direction of the food with respect to the sun. There's a little video of it on youtube, it's adorable : Link. So, in this way they can communicate the direction and the distance of the food they found to all the other bees.

They also do the same dance when they're moving to a new home, and they find a good site for their hive, and they want to tell everybody about it. It's pretty interesting because they all move together, and their decision making process is very efficient, as they always choose the best option. (They have very well defined preferences for their homesite - they prefer large volume cavities, with small entrances, that are high off the ground) The guy presented their strategies in the context that we could learn a thing or two when we have to make our own decisions as a group. How often does a group of people choose the best option?

They have scout bees that go out, and find sites, and return and tell everybody where they are. Initially there are lots of different sites, and some bees are doing their little dances for a variety of them, but dancing for the best sites persists and eventually everybody is dancing for the same site.

Some key points to their decision making process:

There are a lot of options initially, everything is considered.

No bee ever dances for a site without visiting it herself. So, there's no conformity for conformity's sake.

They take their time to decide. They have to take their time, only the scout bees are prepared for long distance flight. Everybody else is semi-dormant and just hanging out, and they can't just jump up and fly off the moment one bee comes back and is fired up and in love with some particular site.

The scouts report their opinion of a site a few times, but then they stop. Good ideas persist by the action of other bees, who have visited the site themselves and agree that it's good.

They wait for a fairly high quorum before they begin preparing for flight. By the end, 80-100% of the scouts are in agreement as to which way to go.

I think it's interesting anyways. There's nobody making the final decision, they decide together, and they make the right choice. There's also some interesting things about how they know when it's time to finally pick up an go too.

Anyway, I still don't know what I'll do about the race on Sunday. One downside to running as much as I have in the past few days is that I don't ever want to run ever again.

Listening to: Nothing

Keith out.

I can't do it.

I skipped the bridge run and decided to run 7 flat miles around my home later in the morning. I made it 3.4 miles before I quit and walked home in the rain. It was a good idea, but I can't do it. Maybe someday, when I'm physically and mentally stronger.

Listening to: John Mayer - Bigger Than My Body (Yes I'm grounded; Got my wings clipped; I'm surrounded by all this pavement.)

K.

coasting...

This big bump in mileage is an interesting experiment, you should try it.

I'm tired all the time, and I'm hungrier than I've ever been. I'm not sure if that part is psychological but they're making fun of me at work for having lunch and then having lunch #2 later on. I'm hungry, but somewhat nauseated too.

You know when your 75% through your long run, and your tired, but still running fast. And sometimes you even feel like you're coasting, and even picking up speed. That's what the last 3 runs have felt like the whole time. It seems like this training is probably very good for me, so long as I don't get hurt. I think it would be good for me to build mileage up to this point where I can do it for more than one week. It's something for me to think about for next year.

I ran 4.4 this morning, and 5 this evening. This day is the easy day and I was hoping it would be a little easier. I was curious as to my pace, so I took along Señor Limpio for my distance and splits. Tonights' five miler gave me splits of : 10:16 - 9:27 - 9:37 - 9:24 - 8:58.

It's very gratifying. I feel tired, but I can keep running, and it doesn't get much worse, and I seem to pick up speed.

Well, I'm zoning out and staring into space, so I think I should go to bed. The Kemah bridge is waiting for me in the morning. :|

Listening to: Nirvana - Stay Away (Give an inch, take a smile; Scratch an itch, scratch a style)

Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssleeeep!
Keith.

If p->q, then q->p.

Elite guys run at least 70 mpw, so if I run 70, then I'm elite, right?

If you just joined us, I got the wild hare to run as many miles as I can this week, as the last week for intense training for the San Antonio Marathon, and somehow I settled on 70 miles for the week. I've had a couple weeks of recovery since my last marathon, so I'm feeling anxious, and I'm trying to desperately cram in a bunch of training in the last week before my taper.

After two days, I'm still on track, with 20 miles so far, but this is going to be very difficult. I'm already tired, and this morning, for some reason was even worse. I struggled through 4 miles around my house. This evening, I scheduled myself for 9 miles at Memorial, so I was concentrating all day on resting, hydrating, and fueling. I had a big salad for lunch, and I had some rice for lunch #2, and I had a few plums and some cake from my buddy Heather's birthday. I guess I did a good job preparing myself, because the 9 miles wasn't as hard as I had expected. Lap 2 was difficult, but somehow lap 3 was okay. Maybe it's because I saw Vic early in lap 3, and Vic Rocks! I'm pretty tired now though. I have a very early wakeup call tomorrow, so it should be interesting to see how I feel in the morning. My guess is not so energetic.

I'm considering running the half on Sunday. Barbara and Vic both mentioned it, and I'm not too good with peer pressure. I think if I had some friends that were into drugs in high school, I'd probably be a smack-addict right now. And everybody's running it.

But it's 40$. Is there a medal? The website doesn't mention one. And I wanted to run with my buddy Tonia, who can't make the group run on Saturday, and has to run on Sunday.

Listening to: System of a Down - Chop Suey (Hide the scars to fade away the shakeup (You wanted to); Why'd you leave the keys upon the table (You wanted to);)

Keith tired. Keith go sleepy now.

When will I crash and burn?

It's been a while since I've done any silly attention-seeking stunts, hasn't it?

I ran again this evening, as well as this morning, and I had an idea. Sometimes they stick, and this one took hold, so let's rock on! I have three weeks until San Antonio, so this is basically the last week I can really tire myself out, and the weather is so nice! Let's see how many miles I can run in one week. I had 3 or 4 weeks in the low 50's over the summer, and I'll have to check my log, but I think my record is something like 52 miles. I like to bite off more than I can chew, so I'm going to shoot for 70+, here's the plan:

	AM	PM
Monday	4 miles	2.9 miles
Tuesday	4 miles	9 miles
Wednesday	4 miles	5 miles
Thursday	7 miles (bridge)	4 miles
Friday	4 miles	3 miles
Saturday	16 miles
Sunday	10 miles
Total	72.9 miles

I know I might benefit more from longer runs once a day, but this is only about the numbers. This is about machismo, and I've got something to prove dammit!

Feel free to guess how many miles I will end up with after Sunday. Will my body hold up? (my cuboid is fine, but ever since the marathon, there is something funny going on with one of my right toes) Will I tire out and quit? Will I oversleep and miss some morning runs, or will I become too busy and miss some evening runs? Will I lose interest in this silliness and try to be more reasonable?

Listening to: Ben Folds Five - Zak and Sara (Sara told the friendly salesmen that, "you'll all die in your cars" and "why's it gotta be dark?" and "you're all working in a submarine.")

Keith.

Bread and Butter.

It's been a long time since one of my routine 4 mile runs through the hood. Everything has been some kind of a special run, or a race, or in another city. It's nice to be home.

I'm looking forward to getting back in the rhythm, although I guess it's almost time for my next marathon, so that should shake things up again. I miss the streak. That was the most enjoyable time for me. My soul thrives on consistency. I'm enjoying some nice fresh fruit and listening to some Ben Folds. He's coming to Houston next week to play with the Houston Symphony, and I'm going to the show, so that should be cool.

Listening to: Ben Folds - Give Judy my Notice (Tears fall, but that don't mean nothing at all. Cause I said it first, yeah that's why it hurts you.)

I'll rock on if you rock on.
Keith.

Poor poor Five-Dog!

Motivation comes and goes quickly these days. I ran 6 miles this morning, and I'm hoping my base is strong enough to withstand a little downtime at this moment. Atlanta was tiring, and a few days off have been disruptive as always. I'm tired, and I think I'll take a nap right now.

Well, my poor dog, The Five-Dog!, finally passed away shortly after I got back from Atlanta. His fever had returned, even while taking two different kinds of powerful antibiotics. It seems the infection was too much. I've tried to keep myself busy and spend some time with some very good friends.

He was a runner too, but like most, he never reached his full potential. When I adopted him from the track, they gave me his racing history, and his 5/16 mile PR was 31.52 seconds (1:40 m/m : 35.7mph)! It also shows his last place finish in his last race. Apparently he got tangled up in the first turn, fell, and broke one of his back legs. The comments for the race still show that he "trailed in." The injury ended his running career, and he got to retire early and spend 23+ hours per day on my couch.

He always had a limp from that injury, but at times, it seems he would forget about it, and run around like a crazy animal, jumping and spinning around, more than 360° in mid-air. And when I rented a room in a house near the medical center, he could get excited about something, and bound up and down the stairs repeatedly, three strides to the top, and two to the bottom, and repeat. I'd grab him to try to calm him down and he'd be so wired, I couldn't contain him and he'd continue his rampage.

He scared me another time, when I found a pool of blood on the floor. I looked all over him, and couldn't find any cuts of any kind, and I couldn't find any cuts on myself either. I concluded that he ate something and was bleeding internally, and probably only had a few moments to live. But it was very confusing, because he was so happy, and excited. Later on I found his injury, in the one place I didn't look, which was at the very tip of his tail. Apparently he wagged his tail and beat it against the wall enough to open it up. Then, I looked around and saw the blood on the walls where streams of blood had flown off his wagging tail and left streaks on almost every wall in my apartment.

My old lady friends and everyone else around here always ask about him, so I'm not really looking forward to those conversations over the next few days. He was always happy to see them, and he would have been happy to see you too.

Listening to: Michael Nyman - Unnamed

Keith.

Pressing on...

Last week I posted a question as to whether I should kick the caffiene and junkfood and negativity and live the life as I should, or if I should stay on the edge, where there's always the risk of quitting running and getting world-record fat.

It's funny that the opinions expressed only slightly favored living the good life. :)

My friend Jenny, that I've been training with 'virtually' for a couple of years through coolrunning.com said that I seemed like a different runner, ever since the marathon. She noted, that just how I write about running seems like it's just an undeniable fact of life now, that will always be there, and I think she's right. My attitude has changed since the marathon. It's much harder for me to deny that I am in good shape. I know I'm not that fast, but I was running strong at mile 25, and it takes a lot of work to get there. Not everybody can do it. I'm never comfortable patting myself on the butt, but it's true. What happens next isn't even a question.

I know a proud and strong Keith isn't good for my hitcount. You never know though, maybe next week, I'll have a bad run, and my attitude will come crashing down. Maybe at that point, I'll melt up some ice cream and peanut butter and Velveeta and mainline it right in my arm! Aaaaiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeee! Velveeeeeeeeeta!!!!

Listening to: Robert Plant - Innuendo (Till the mountains crumble into the plain; Oh yes we'll keep on tryin'; Tread that fine line; Oh we'll keep on tryin' yeah.)

Keith.

More running in the city.

7.3 miles yesterday, 5.4 miles today. I think I'm not quite recovered from the race. I've been starting to feel sore and achey after just a few miles. I'll keep it short tomorrow, and see if it helps. It's nice to get to know the whole city by running through it.

It was raining this morning, as I was heading out. I hesitated, and thought about spending some time on the hotel treadmills instead, but just then, the doorman told me to have a nice run in the rain, so I said, "okay thanks," and had to go. I ran from midtown to downtown and back. I mapped it here. Yesterday, I ran around Georgia Tech and Piedmont Park, and ran in some crazy circles and stuff because I only vaguely knew where I was going.

Geekfest is nice. Despite having accomplished nothing in this field, I've gotten to know a lot of people, and now there all scattered around, some in Minnesota, and Connecticut, and Austin, and Seattle, and Germany, and wherever. Everybody makes the trip back for the big Neuroscience meeting, and it's nice to catch up. I've seen almost everybody, with some notable exceptions, like my buddy Shigeo, who is stuck in Japan.

Tomorrow's the last day. It's a pretty exhausting thing. I'll be glad to get back home.

Listening to: Horatio Sans - Season's Greetings (I wish it was Christmas today.)

Keith.

Geeks Rule!

Geekfest 2006 goes to the home of the Braves! The Geek-Factor has never been higher anywhere on the east coast, and I'm proud to say, with me here, it's just a little bit higher.

I'm reporting to you live from the ATL, here for the annual meeting for the Society for Neuroscience. Geeks from all over the globe have traveled here, over 25,000 of them already, and we'll be here for most of the week, reporting all our findings about various kinds of geekery. I'm staying at the OMNI Hotel, which is just a hundred feet from the convention center. It's very nice here, as long as you don't go outside. Outside, you're gonna die.

There are several sources of stress that should be relieved after this week. This meeting is not really a vacation, and I'm supposed to present my data tomorrow too. I wasn't nervous about it, but I started getting nervous today. I've been telling myself that nobody that knows my project better than me, I'll let you know tomorrow if that's true.

I did get back to running this morning. 3 miles and I felt like a hundred dollars. My muscles didn't feel sore at the beginning but started to rather quickly. But it was a good run. Atlanta's not all that bad, I was just being an ass, earlier. There are a lot of nice hills here, and it was cold, like forty-something.

Listening to: Rick Ross - Hustlin' (I know Pablo........Norieaga, the real norieaga, he owe me a hundred favors.)

Keith.

Off to the A-T-L

Still no running for me yet. And I'm beginning to get a little itchy to get back into it. I planned to go this morning, but I strained my back on Thursday changing a flat tire, and I have to baby it a little. And I've got about a bajillion things to do today, since I'm leaving for Atlanta for a convention this afternoon.

So, I'll be out of town most of next week, but I should still have internet access, and of course I'll have access to my running shoes and the outside. I'm looking forward to running in Atlanta.

Anyway, I still have to pack, and kennel up my double-b, and I have to go to the store to get some food for him to have at the kennel.

Listening to: Limp Bizkit - Counterfeit (?)

My vices: sugar, caffeine, and sarcasm

Thanks for all your kind words, everybody. You guys rock!

Just to address a couple of comments:

Steve: I didn't talk to him a whole lot, just some encouragement from him at mile 21, and some chit-chat at the book signing. Seems like a nice enough guy. Firm handshake, looks you in the eye and everything. He was a little shorter than I thought though, maybe 5'7" or so.

Vic: You owe me a real hug.


Through last night, I felt fine, much better than expected, but getting out of bed this morning was surprising. Everything is sore, and there's a minor problem with one of my toes. It's swollen and hurts to bend it. I think it's probably nothing. The good news is there's no problems with the bone we do not speak of.

I'll think about running tomorrow night. Maybe an easy lap around Memorial.

I feel like I've overcome a barrier by just getting myself to the start line uninjured and still motivated. I have about four weeks before San Antonio. I have to admit, I'm more excited about running well at the Sunmart 50K in December.

There are so many improvements I can make. Perhaps, it's time I kicked things up a notch. I only pretend like I'm an athlete for a few hours a day, maybe I can pretend I'm an athlete most of the day, or maybe even all of the day. What would happen if I started eating like an athlete? Or if I started doing more than just base-building? What would happen if I started weight training, like I've been saying I'm going to do one of these days?

I guess the dieting is the main thing. I could stand to lose 10 pounds or 15 pounds, and I'm sure the ultra-convenient food I eat is not the ideal fuel for a finely tuned athlete like myself. I have a book called "Eating for Endurance," by Phil Maffetone. I've had it for months and haven't even opened it. Maybe I should open it.

I'll only do it if it would make for good blogging though. Would you folks like to hear about that? Or do you like to hear about me struggling with my snack-cracker addiction? Do you really want to see a Keith that's strong and empowered, fueled by fruits and whole grains and unrefined love? Something tells me that a Keith that is flawed and tormented and fueled by sugar and caffeine and sarcasm is more compelling.

Listening to: Wierd Al - Dare to be Stupid (Put down the chainsaw and listen to me.)

Keith.

The Endurance 50 - Texas

Hey bloggers. I finished! I'm exhausted. Dean ran it in 4:12:20, and I was about 5 minutes back, finishing in 4:17:12 (9:49 m/m). You can read his report here.

Here are my splits:

1 : 10:11	11 : 9:10	21 : 10:13
2 : 9:11	12 : 9:16	22 : 9:27
3 : 9:25	13 : 9:09	23 : 9:54
4 : 9:43	14 : 9:21	24 : 10:14
5 : 9:54	15 : 9:20	25 : 10:55
6 : 9:14	16 : 9:15	26 : 9:47
7 : 9:25	17 : 8:54	26.98 : 8:53
8 : 9:03	18 : 9:13
9 : 8:53	19 : 9:45
10 : 9:26	20 : 9:49

It rained very hard at the beginning, and less hard later on. But I'll take cold rain over hot sun any day of the week.

The distance on my GPS came out longer than expected, and it had lost signal a bunch of times, but I do think the course was a bit long too, and I made a wrong turn around mile 23 that cost me a couple minutes. Another thing that cost me a couple minutes was the dead legs and no energy after mile 22. It was pretty rough at that point. The last couple of miles were incredibly exciting, knowing that I was going to be able to run the whole way in, and run a decent time, like I thought I could. Did you think I could?

Dean was all over the place, pacing very inconsistently. I'll bet it hurts him to go so slow. For the first five miles, he was out of sight way behind me, and then somehow, with no notice, he passed me. And then later he was way way behind again, and then, at mile 15, boop - there he is, and just as quickly, beep - he was out of sight behind me. I started struggling around mile 21 and he passed me for the last time. He asked how I was doing, and I said "I might make it." He was very reassuring, and encouraging. It was at this time, when someone else asked him what his heartrate was at that moment, and he looked at his watch and said "110." 110!

So, I didn't get on the bus, but as it turns out I don't think there even was a sag-bus, sucking up runners that dropped off pace, like I expected. There were even several runners finishing well over 5 hours. But knowing the course was a problem at the end, and it was unclear which way to go, when everyone was spread out. It's basically my first marathon, not counting the time I hobbled through the NYCM - 66 minutes slower than today. When people ask what my marathon time is, I usually say, "well, I've only done one, and I was injured." Not anymore. I'm proud of my 4:17.

I got a bunch of stuff in the goodie bag, including:

An Endurance 50 tee-shirt

A Timex running hat

A NorthFace visor

A pair of running socks

A water bottle with Dean on it.

Another water bottle that says Endurance 50, and one of those stretchy things that make it easy to carry.

A Luke's Locker ID tag

A sample of Optimum Power cereal

A Cytomax Gel

A package of Cytomax Drink Mix

A coupon for some free insoles

I think I get one month of coaching, but there's nothing in the package about it. We got some emails about it.

A copy of his book "Ultra Marathon Man," which I got signed.

A picture frame for our group photo, which is also signed.

Dean told me that they send a finisher's certificate, which would be valid for the TMC, but I'm not sure how they know I finished or not. I got him to write something about the TMC inside the book, so at least I can scan it and send it to Roger Soler, so he knows that Dean vouches for me for running the whole way. And I vouch for him, Dean ran the whole way too.

Listening to: Ben Folds Five - Narcolepsy (I know you don't know what I mean... yet.

Whoo hoo!
Keith.

Hug me!

Well, me and the pooch are heading up to Big-D this afternoon.

It should be interesting. I felt great on Saturday, when it was a little cooler, and I had tons of energy. I really feel the improvement that comes with the taper, on the other hand, I'm still struggling with a bit of a chest cold, so who knows how things will turn out.

There were many people at the club who were excited for me, and I even got several hugs, which was very nice. I think I give off a vibe that says to keep your distance, like I might not enjoy a hug, but I totally do! You can hug me! If it occurs to you to hug me, Hug Away! I won't freak out.

Anyway, they say you shouldn't change your routine at all, so I've got my snack crackers, and I'll head out to Jack-in-the-Box in a sec.

Listening to: Debbie Reynolds - Would you? (He holds her in his arms. Would you? Would you?)

Keith.

Let's not blur the lines...

I had been thinking of what to do if I can't keep pace with old Dean and the gang. I even considered bringing a route map in case I had to finish on my own. But, perhaps, having that option might guarantee that I don't make it. Surely I'll feel tired at 14 and think it wise to pace myself based on my self.

So, that idea sucks. Let's not blur the line between success and failure. Moral victories are for losers.

I already know I can slog through a marathon in half a day. I knew this race would be challenging for me, that's why I signed up. I thought I'd have to run a 4:30, which I'm pretty sure I can do. And it turns out, they might run a 4:20, or even 4:10, so if it comes to that, I guess I'll just have to run a 4:10.

Confidence is highly erratic these days. For some reason it's back up today. I ran 4 miles this morning, back on the roads around my home. Just me, my lungs, my sweat, and my two feets.

There have been a lot of ups and downs for me during the course of training for this race, some of which I write about and some of which I wrote and never published. And some published only in hidden messages and carefully chosen music clips.

It's as simple as this: if I get on the bus, know that I've failed. If I finish in time, know that my heart's on fire.

Listening to: Tenacious D - Explosivo (We've come to blow your nose.)

Keith.

One week until raceday.

Hi America, How are you? You look good.

There's less than seven days until my race. It doesn't look like it's going to be freakishly cool that day, like I was hoping. On the other hand, Dean and the gang ran a 4:28 yesterday, which should be more manageable than the 3:5-'s he's run a few times recently. When I was running 6 miles per day, it didn't really catch up to me until about three weeks in. So, maybe my 6 miles is equivalent to his 26 miles. Maybe he is human? No?

I'm taking a day off today. I seem to have caught a little something that started as a minor sore throat and now seems to be a minor chest cold. The good thing about a chest cold is that I can entertain myself endlessly with my Barry White impression.

I think I'll put a poll on the blog so you can all vote as to which mile I crash and burn and have to get on the bus.

Listening to: Myself - Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe (Girl, I don't know, I don't know why; Can't get enough of your love babe.)

Keith.