Book Review: Again to Carthage

I want to start by saying that I loved this book. Some of the things I have to say may indicate otherwise, but I couldn't put it down and I'm a little sad that it is now over.

If you haven't heard of this book, it is a sequel to Once a Runner. It picks up Quenton Cassidy roughly 10 years after his Silver medal in the Olympics. I think it was about 10 years later, the book is fairly vague on an exact timeline. Just like with Once a Runner, John Parker Jr. does a great job with capturing the inner workings of distance runners. This book has extreme relevance to the Dusty Spikes blog. Parker does a good job of reflecting upon an athletic career that is long over. Another cool thing he does is weave fictional characters in with real people that were around at the time.

This leads me to some of my problems with the book. I think there are some major timeline issues. I didn't realize that he was training for the 1980 Trials until the very end of the book. So the timeframe of the book is 1978-1980. There are plenty of references to things that happened well after the timeline of the book. It is narrated as the events occurred, not as a look back. However, the narrator talks about John Campbell's masters running which I clearly remember in the early 90s. Also, a major topic in the book is the small number of men who had run a 4:00 mile and a 2:10 marathon. The characters cite Ken Martin as one of the only guys to have done this. That really didn't make sense to me either, so I looked this one up. Ken Martin shows up at 2:11 in 1984 and 2:09 in 1989 (10 years after the book supposedly took place!!!)

With my track nerd rant aside, I found the story entertaining. I loved living vicariously through Cassidy, who had the ability to take 2 years off from work (and any other form of responsibility) to live in the North Carolina mountains in the summer and Florida in the summer with the sole purpose of running far and fast.

If you are in a Dusty Spikes state of mind, I highly recommend this book. However, please take it for what it is: an often entertaining, sometimes inspiring story that can climb into a runners head and explain what goes on in there.

5:54

I broke the illusive 6 minute barrier last Friday at the track. Afterward, Coach assured me that I'll be ready to run sub-40 for the 10k at Raleigh Relays in March.

It was slightly raining and there was a high school girls field hockey game going on while I was running around the track so I'm sure I was labeled "creepy" by the parents in the stands. Of course, it's also possible that they didn't think anything of it until I started screaming "I'M NOT CREEPY! Just running a one mile time trial by myself in the rain. . like you've never gone 3 days without shaving!" All this while shoving a moon pie in my mouth of course.

On Saturday I went to a Metallica concert which has absolutely nothing to do with this blog post except that I'm hopeful I can recruit Jason Smith to join in on the fun. The dude ran a race in snow shoes. That's a total Dusty Spikes move!

Dear Eli

Dear Eli,

I was somewhat amused to learn last week on Sportscenter that you have been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. How the hell did you manage to get an injury that normally plagues 30 something year old runners? That makes about as much sense as Usain Bolt getting a concussion or Michael Phelps suffering from turf toe. I'm not familiar with the training regimen of NFL players but I find it hard to believe that you've been running 1000 repeats in Van Cortland Park on your day off.

I got some really bad news for you Eli. .. YOU'RE SCREWED. I don't care how much time you spend rolling that F*$king golf ball under your foot, this is one injury that is NEVER going to go away! Get used to popping 20 Advil a day and sleeping in a night split for the next 4 years. I'd also suggest getting your personal assistant (or 3rd string QB) to purchase a 500 pack of paper cups from Costco which you'll be using for ice massages. I'm not even going to bother talking about orthotics to "correct your biomechanics".

On a positive note, you will definitely have periods of no pain in which you'll be convinced that the PF has finally healed. This usually occurs around the time when you're either close to giving up and retiring or you've started to get used to the pain. Enjoy this period, the PF will ALWAYS return.

If you want to talk to someone who has been through this shit, stop by the Running Company in Manhattan and ask to speak to Ben Cooke. Beware that he might suggest that you play football wearing a pair of Nike running shoes "designed by NASA scientists."

Keep in touch,

Jason

Breaking Point

I've been fighting some type of a hamstring/back injury for 3 weeks now. Before that, I was battling shin pain and plantar fasciitis. I blame it on the fact that I actually ran back-to-back 20 mile weeks. I know this sounds like extreme training but I was in the middle of reading "Running with the Buffaloes."

I think I remember Tom Jeffrey telling me that he never ran more than 80 miles/week because that was the point that he started to get injuries. Apparently my new breaking point is somewhere between 15-20 miles/week. If all Dusty Spikes writers were filling in the mileage log still in Godwin Hall, Pat Anderson would be the high mileage guy.

Tis the Season. . .to be dumping in Purcell

It's easy to have crazy "I miss running" thoughts in the Fall. The leaves are changing. There's a crisp smell in the air. It's just cold enough that you need to wear a long-sleeve shirt while running but you can still get away with shorts. . . very short shorts if you are a Sophomore in college or older.

This is also about the time that we started running 8 x 1000 in Purcell. I would estimate that about 80% of my workouts in Purcell went well . The other 20% were HORRENDOUS! It's been a while since those dreadful 1000s but from my experience, Purcell was a horrible place to dump.

Here's how my most brutal dumps went:

• Repeat 1 and 2: You know pretty early on when a bad workout is coming on. I usually realized it when I was already hurting on the 2nd one.
• Repeat 3 and 4: Around the 4th one I'd start falling off the pace
• Repeat 5: Okay, now I'm really in trouble and just trying to hang on as long as possible. After this 1000 Coach would recognize the disaster and say "Jason, drop to group 2". *Usually I'd be joined in group demotion from someone else having a bad day (any flashbacks Pat?)
• Repeat 6: On this repeat I've already lost momentum, confidence, and took a blow to my pride by being demoted a group. I'd usually be able to hang-on to the new group on this one by the skin of my teeth.
• Repeat 7: On the 7th one, I'd once again start falling off the pace. This time, I'd get the deployment orders. "Jason, start cooling down".

Getting fired from a workout was always a mixed feeling for me. Part of me was relieved that the misery and humiliation was over. The other part of me was always hoping that I was going to get a 2nd wind .. which NEVER happens at Purcell.

*Note: If the workout was a complete disaster and multiple people were dumping, Coach would form an entirely hybrid group made of people dumping ass. This was great because miserly loves company 2) increased chance of coach eliminating a repeat or 2 3) you get to dump without true group demotion.

Did you all have the same experience?

Reset

Ok, I wanted to reset this blog to what I thought it was supposed to be about. It's starting to feel like a Facebook page for graduates of a 2nd rate diploma mill in the Shenandoah Valley.

So here I go... I am slow and I am soft. I kind of thought it was true, but it really hit home this past week. Sure, I had an idea when I was at the beach this past summer. There are two distinct sets of pictures in that vacation photo album. The first set I am playing with my daughters on the beach. The second set, taken after I saw the first set, I am playing with my daughters on the beach with my shirt on.

Funny enough, I haven't really gained weight. I've just gotten soft.

So that was bad, but last week I ran three miles slowly one day and I was sore the next day. Later in the week, I basically jogged four miles and had to take a nap that afternoon. Granted, I'm on a super-stressful project at work. Maybe that excuses some of it. However, I used to work in a factory in the summers while running 70-80 miles a week. How the hell did I do that?

So how are people out there dealing with their struggles? I think I need a goal. Is there a race or event anyone is shooting for? If so, is it far enough into the future that we could get ready for it? I'd be interested in teaming up for something.

CJSK spotted in TV commercials

What TV commercials has anyone seen CJ in?

So far, I have heard about a golf commercial in DC and a MAACO commercial.

I've heard rumors of some soft gay porn but no confirmations...

Random JMU Runner encounters

Has anyone had any random run ins with former teammates? Here's a few unexpected encounters from my post JMU days

- Ran into Stacy Donahue at the Port a Potties at the Boston Marathon - both of us rushing to the start with about 5 minutes before the start
- Saw Don Cambria beat Bill Rodgers in a half marathon in Hampton, VA
- Was randomly interviewed by Julie Henner after I ran a blazing 1:30 half marathon in Virginia Beach. She was commentating for some TV show.
- Flipping the pages of Runner's World and seeing Bill Lynch in an article

Anyone else?

Where are they now: Steve Holman

Here's an interesting interview with Steve Holman in Running Times who is apparently now working at Vanguard. CJ, is your mom his boss? I thought it was funny that he also started running again because he was getting fat and easily winded. Also, the reason he finally retired. . .. . .sick of cross training.

Barefoot Injury

I took my first barefoot run on Monday. I ran about 5 minutes around the astro-turf and my foot felt great. The only problem is that my feet got tangled up in the soccer net behind the goal and I wiped out right in front of some yoga group. Apparently, I strained my back during the fall since I'm now to the age where every fall means injury. I even made an old man grunt while falling to lose an additional 20 cool points. I suppose the barefoot advocates and the running shoe specialists will have different interpretations of why I got this injury:

Barefoot Advocate: The reason you feel was because your foot muscles are so weak from years of wearing shoes that you've lost balance.

Running Shoe People: You clearly wouldn't have tripped if you would have been wearing proper cushioning and landing on your heals.

Either way, I'd clearly be a clutsy neanderthal and would more than likely be easy prey for a saber-tooth.

Barefoot Epiphany

After injuring my foot in 2000, I tried 3 different sets of orthotics, multiple inserts, 4 weeks in a moonboot & crutches, prolotherapy, ESWT (shockwave treatment), and finally surgery. I visited 10 different doctors which included trips to New York, Baltimore, Charlotte, and Houston.

I had a realization last Thursday when my plantar fascia pain made a comeback mid-way through a slow 3o minute run. No matter what type of shoe or expensive orthotic I've ever tried, my natural reaction whenever my foot flares up has always been to take my shoe off (I usually don't do this at trade shows or in crowded bars). I also remember discovering about 6 years ago that the best pair of shoes for my foot pain was a pair of 6 dollar speedo flip-flops purchased at Target.

After hearing about Pat's cure for shin pain and reading this article about the failure of advances in running shoe technology to cure injuries, I'm wondering if I should have saved my six-dollars (and thousands in orthotics and various other treatments) and adopted barefoot running a long time ago.

Can't really see myself running down the streets of Arlington in barefeet so I'm going to give the Pat Anderson flats-only training a shot. If nothing else, it will help me cruise through my 8 minute pace miles on the track. It can also be handy in case I run into the 50 year old man I passed in my race and he challenges me to an impromptu 440 yard dash for vengeance.

Expiration Date for PRs

Is there an expiration date for PRs? I know for the officially sanctioned races like the Olympic Trials you can't just expect to jump in based on your PR you ran 7 years ago. But what about just general cocktail party conversation? What if someone asked me in a local running club or a bar what my PR is? I think it would be misleading to state a time I ran 11 years ago when I weighed 155 lbs and didn't get sore for 4 days after 5k road races. It would also be quite humiliating when you tell them your race plan to start off in 6:00 for the first mile.

I'm going to suggest 10 years to be the expiration date for a PR. That gives me a month to use my remaining PR to attempt to get a registration fee waived for a local road race. Who knows, maybe I would even get a single digit race # and my name announced as an "elite" runner . . .only to run 19 minutes with a furious kick to grab 8th place in the men's 30-34 age group.

Dayton

I’m sure this posting will inspire nothing but pride and motivation. I wanted to tell you’all about a workout I had in college among the cow turd fields of Dayton while I was coming back from a hamstring injury my junior year. It was an odd threesome. I worked out with Guss, who was also coming back from an injury, but he was not fully healed, and a professional runner who hung around the team named Sandy - Sandy was preparing for “a very big race.” Coach drove the three of us out to Dayton on a weird day to do a workout like a Wednesday or something. The van ride would have been quiet (and always a good time to take a nap) except Sandy chirped on and on like a mental patient about his “race, very big race, race race RACE big race RACE….” When we finally got to Dayton, Coach explained that we were going to do a five miler, dropping the pace each mile. I do not remember the exact times, but I do remember thinking how incredibly slow they were like starting at a 7:40 pace (I think the workout was really for Sandy, and Guss and I were supposed to be the rabbits). After a warm up, the three of us started out on the first mile, Coach peeled ahead in the van to get to the first marker.

Now I had not worked out in over two weeks, just the bike rides in the training room, so my legs were fresh and I felt good. I was also excited to be feeling this good in Dayton, where the dried shit gravel roads had always gotten the best of many people, especially me. Guss, however, was still hurting, or sick, I think he had some weird blood infection; anyway, he immediately dropped off the pace, leaving just “race” and me. Now for some reason, annoying on many levels, he tucked in so tightly behind me that he kept kicking the bottom of my shoes. I picked up the pace to get away from him and he yapped “too fast… too fast”. It was a fun first mile. He was right though, because when we passed the first marker Coach yelled “EASY! EASY!” I’m guessing we were a full minute under the pace. So for the next mile, Coach drove along side of us in the van, leaning out the window with his dark sunglasses, quietly saying “easy… easy... easy…” as Sandy continued to kick my heels. After a while of this, passively and aggressively, I decided to slow way down in an instant - causing Sandy to run into me hard and he snapped “What the Hell!” I said “Sorry”, Coach said, “Damn CJ, you don’t have to bust him up!”, and he sped to the next mile marker. Now things were awkward between Sandy and me and I love to run from awkwardness, and I felt exceptionally great that day, so I really picked up the pace. Sandy just let me go and stopped with his incessant “too fast”. I think he was pissed at me, and he realized I wasn’t going to be a good rabbit that day. I felt too good. He must have realized that I had a new focus - to run well at Dayton finally. Fucking shit farming Mennonites! Coach knew this too, he could see it in my eyes when I passed the second mile marker - he said nothing. Really though, I thought he might be pissed at me, which is a scary thought (a flash of him yelling at Curtis at that indoor meet came to mind). Nevertheless, when Coach drove past me to get to the next marker he slowed down and said the classic “You’re Fine, You’re Fine!” I took this as the green light and I started to roll. For the first time and probably the only time, I was running well at Dayton. How many people can say that? I think my last mile was in the mid 4mins. After the workout, Sandy told me that “I was blazing” and he seemed not to be mad. Guss did not come in for a while so we backtracked in the van and found him in a driveway deliriously talking to a chicken. I don’t think I followed the theme of Dusty Spikes, but I don’t care, I had to post this entry immediately when I learned of this blog. I am positive, however, after reading my tale you are clear as to why.

A possible explanation

You can add me to the list of former competitors that still have a pair of spikes in the closet over a decade later. I've thought about those spikes from time to time in the last 12 years. Looking back, I was as far from putting those bad boys on in 1999 as I am in 2009. You couldn't have told me that back then.

There is one trait I possess that has kept those old Nikes around: unreasonable optimism. In order to be a competitive runner in the first place, you have to have a lot of unreasonable optimism. No reasonable person would put themselves through what competitive distance runners do to themselves. There is a lot of ridiculous optimism that goes into a running career. All runners are guilty of making goals that are a long reach for themselves. Also, at the end of that career, if the runner actually recognizes that its the end, they have complete belief that they could have been or actually were better than the PRs that go in their running logs.

So, some of the optimism has faded over the years. Repeated achilles injuries can do that to you. However, I can't count the number of times that I have said to myself that I need to really give it another shot.

In order to deal with my achilles injuries, I have found that I can run really far (I have run a couple of ultras). However, I no longer aspire to run really fast. I guess if we are looking for comeback stories on this blog, my storyline will be my comeback from running a few miles slowly to running a lot of miles a little less slowly.

no spikes just flats

I actually ran a couple of Nashville Striders cross country races this August. In the last one I outkicked some high school kid and he turned to me in the chute and said "nice race, sir!" That was mildly painful. As was the familiar dry heaving.

I've been back running about 30 mi/wk since last november. It was HORRENDOUS starting out, but 20lbs later it is much better. Also, I may have discovered a cure for my injury problems. I threw out all my orthotics/inserts and have run everything since march in flats. Calves were sore as hell at the start but after about six weeks everything calmed down and no shin/achilles/p.f. problems at all. Weird.

Mid-packers kick

I passed over 10 people the final .1 of my first 5k. Wasn't until afterwards that I realized that this was pretty much shooting fish in a barrel. I don't think your average 19 min 5k runner feels the need to lay it all on the line in the final 200 meters. Logically, this makes perfect sense being that with exception of the two females I passed (victims 3 and 7) and the 50 year old man (victim 1) all of the age-group awards have been long decided by this point. Apparently Pat Anderson recently used a wicked mid-packers kick to nip a local high-schooler at the line. I would assume CJ also has a blazing final stretch when he does his annual Philly 5k. I guess we're hardwired from college to think every point counts. If I run another 5k I may have to supplement my kick with some taunting. . hopefully I won't pull my hamstring in the process or fire up the competitive juices of the female 30-34 age group winner.

9-11 Memorial 5K . . .free beer but no socks

In my first running race back in nearly a decade I ran 19:21 last night at the 9-11 Memorial 5k. 11th place in my age group. . . no trophy or socks awarded. If I would have claimed to be a firefighter I still wouldn't have won anything. Love to say it was an easy jog in the park but it was extremely painful and I raced hard. Pat Anderson's pre-race analysis was spot on:

I would venture to say that breaking 19 will be tougher than you'll think for a full 5k (it's that stupid extra .1 that gets you!) but you can probably do it if you are really ready to hurt and finish well.

Forgot that 5k is one of those distances that is painful the entire race. Also forgot how horrible the post-race cooldown was. My cooldown was 5 min. followed by 1 bottle of water then I got in line for the beer truck. Since I was running for the company team, my registration was free. Does that make me "sponsored"? Free beer, pizza, burger, and t-shirt for 20 min. of work.

A decade later. . .40 lbs heavier

I have not run competitively for almost a decade now. I went 8 years without taking a step (except for chasing down cabs) and then attempted to start running last summer. That attempt was a dismal failure when I couldn't make it through a 15 min run without my shins locking up. I also got a knee injury during the process since clearly 10 minutes on a track is "too much, too soon".

I didn't start running with any thought of running a race again. I was just thinking it was a great way to lose weight since I weighted 202 and was in danger of needing to buy new suits.

Now that I am finally able to run 20 miles a week, I've gotten curious. How fast can I run now on 30 miles a week training? Could I compete in my age group for awards? Marshall Smith won his age group in a race this summer and got a pair of socks. I WANT SOCKS TOO! Is that too lofty of a goal for someone with dusty spikes? This could be interesting.

Polo anyone?

I just pulled my calf running today at lunch… and I use the term “running” extremely loose. I was running probably 10 min miles (at best) and made it about 12 minutes before my calf pulled. WTF!!! Maybe I need surgery and calf implants! Or maybe I need to take up polo.

So I plan to make a small comeback. I was challenged that I could not run 3.5 miles at 5 minute per mile. I have not run competitively in at least 5 years. I have gained 20-30 lbs. I am starting with a knee that has tendonitis and I have chronic plantar fasciitis in my feet.

Jason one of my teammates and once an idol in high school have talked ourselves into the attempt to get close enough to fit to really get fit. I have not run in several days but I am lifting some 5 lbs dumbbells. I may even do situps. I will bust out ice and advill.
I hope to run on thursday...... we shall see!

rite of passage

I can remember as a high school runner wanting to fit in with other athletes. Long shorts were in XC wasn't as much. It was a basketball mentality. So you arrive in collage as a freshmen ready to go with a full array of "cool" shorts. New experience first time from home. First day of practice and you realize from comments from upperclassmen, coaches, etc that you are still not fitting in. Everyone is wearing split shorts..... So you go out and get a split short show up the next day. Wearing a split short with about 3 inches of material from your hip down your leg. That was nothing.......Communal showers in Godwin hall was even more traumatizing.

Each year was the same for every freshmen class. awkward moments the first week of practice!

Why to I own a pair of Adidas spikes?

I was cleaning out my closet recently and came across the dusty Adidas spikes that I last wore in May 1999 at IC4As. This made me wonder. . I haven't ran a competitive race in almost 10 years. I've packed up and moved 9 times since then. Each move, I purge almost half of my possessions. Why then do I still own these Adidas spikes?

I thought this was kinda strange and worth some laughs so I shared it with my friends via facebook status. Here are a couple of the responses I got:




Stacey's comment made me wonder. Could this be true? Do most college runners hold on to their spikes regardless of how unlikely it is that they'll ever wear them again? And if so. .why must we do this?? I have my theories but am curious to find out other's thoughts.